Liquor sale ban exemption applies nationwide:SC 

Liquor sale ban exemption applies nationwide:SC 

Context

• The July 11 order of the apex court that clarified the stretches of highways running through municipal areas were exempted from the ban was in news again as the question remains that whether the exemption granted to municipal areas in the July 11 order pertained to only municipal areas in Chandigarh and none other.

The doubt

• The doubt was raised by the Madras High Court and the Madras HC asked the Tamil Nadu government to approach the Supreme Court and get a clarification.
• The High Court says municipal areas in the SC order means only areas in Punjab and not in Chennai.

Apex court reply

• The order applies for municipal areas in Chandigarh it will apply equally for municipal areas across the country,” Chief Justice Misra responded orally.
• Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who had authored the highway ban verdict observed that the exemption from ban applies to municipal areas across the country.

What led to the confusion?

• The reason of the present confusion was a particular paragraph in the July 11 order which said, “The purpose of the directions contained in the order dated December 15, 2016 is to deal with the sale of liquor along and in proximity of highways properly understood, which provide connectivity between cities, towns and villages. The order does not prohibit licensed establishments within municipal areas. This clarification shall govern other municipal areas as well. We have considered it appropriate to issue this clarification to set at rest any ambiguity and to obviate repeated recourse to IAs (interlocutory applications), before the court.”
• “The phrase ‘other municipal areas’ in the order means municipal areas across the country.
• The Madras High Court’s Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar had
• The clarification
• This clarification from the apex court had effectively made infructuous any pending litigation in High Courts on declassification of State or national highways to district roads by State governments or local authorities.
• The court’s clarification had come as a huge relief for bar and hotel owners who were forced to shut down operations post the December 15 ban. Thousands were left jobless after these establishments were closed down.

Why was the ban imposed?

• The Supreme court had imposed the ban after hearing a plea that claimed that nearly 1.42 lakh people died in road accidents every year
• Drunk driving is a potent cause of fatalities and injuries in road accidents
• The Constitution preserves and protects the right to life as an overarching Constitutional value
• Which states are exempted from the ban?
• The top court had exempted the states of Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim and places with populations less than 20,000 from the restriction.
• The supreme court had also relaxed the norms for Arunachal Pradesh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

What are the economic implications of this ban?

• The move could lead to states losing overall tax revenue of Rs 50,000 crore, restaurants and pubs taking a hit of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore and 100,000 people going out of work
• State revenue losses are estimated at Rs 50,000 crore, besides job losses of over a lakh
• The top three — United Spirits BSE 3.78 %, Pernod Ricard and Allied Blenders, which account for 60% of overall sales — had zero growth by volume in the April-December period.
• Liquor sales in India slowed to 0.4% in the first nine months of the financial year, the slowest growth in a market that’s been expanding rapidly since 2001, with a compounded annual growth rate of over 12% in the decade to 2011.

Why the ban is good?

• Bans serve some immediate benefits to their users.
• In politics, be it US or Bihar, the ‘right-intention’ serves the purpose of the initiative rather than the ultimate result of the act.
• In India, the common mass is generally occasional drinkers. Curtailing alcohol supply will in hand curtail their drinking behavior.
• In politics, ban of alcohol solves an array of problems for many households. Thus, it consolidates some segment of their voter base.
• There are seen to be communal and domestic violence cases which seem to abate after a ban.
• For example, in Bihar, people especially women are talking about its positive effect and how their lives have changed after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s historic decision.

Why the ban is not good?

• According to psychologist Jack Brehm, humans hate obstruction of personal freedom. Accordingly, they get into a rebellious state of mind and regain their freedom through illegal affairs.
• The undercover liquor supply makes its way for new problems like spurious liquor, gang wars and sale of other narcotic substances.
• Economically, following the Supreme Court, the country has been facing problems for clubs, hotels and restaurants.
• In Chennai, around 120 bars attached to clubs have remained closed since April 1, and the loss to the industry is estimated to be ₹600 crores, according to Benze Saravanan, founder, Tamil Nadu Bar and Club Owners Association.
• Large hotel chains are not the only ones affected by the ban.
• Food and beverage revenues have declined by 30-40% since the court order, and specialty restaurants have been badly hit.
• In a nutshell, in the two months since the court ruling, the hospitality industry in Chennai has lost an estimated ₹3,000 crores.
• With hardly any progress being made on resolving the issue, the hospitality industry says business in hotels on arterial roads has been crippled.
• This is directly affecting their employees too.