SC open to liquor sale on city highways:

SC open to liquor sale on city highways: 

Context

•  A sign of relief may come to hotels, pubs as the Supreme Court on Tuesday prima facie observed that there may be nothing wrong in de-notifying particular stretches of highways running inside city limits as liquor-free zones.
•  The court has scheduled a detailed hearing for July 11.

Change of stance

•  As city roads and such de-classification does not violate its order that national and State highways across the country should be liquor-free zones.
•  Roads in question do not normally see high-speed traffic.
•  The objective of the liquor ban was to prevent drunken driving in fast-moving traffic.
• The pace of traffic within city is very different from the traffic outside city limits.
•  The purpose of the ban is to avoid drivers getting inebriated while driving on highways inter-linking cities

Relief to Hotel and Pub owners

•  The verdict in March 2017 also encircled larger establishments, including pubs and hotels, such a de-tour of the verdict is a great sign of relief to them.  
•  The court on March 2017 said exempting establishments other than “shops involved in sale of liquor”, which include bar-attached hotels, wine and beer parlours dotting highways would amount to dilution of its December 15 judgment’s objective to prevent drunk driving, one of the major killers plaguing Indian roads.