"Liquor Ban does not prohibit "licensed establishments" within municipal areas ?"

"Liquor Ban Judgment "does not prohibit ' licensed establishments'  within municipal areas ?"

2nd Clarification on the Judgment a Boon ?... 

1."There is no "Fundamental right to trade in liquor" their Lordships observed in the Landmark judgment of Hon. Apex Court dated 15/12/2016 in the case of State of Tamilnadu V/s. K. Balu, which literally closed majority of the liquor vends on national and state highways across the country. 

2.The Court adverted to the consistent policy of the Union Government, evolved for the first time in 2004 to curb drunken driving and, as an incident of the policy, to remove liquor vends on national highways. 

3. The crux of the judgment was that throughout all over India, directions were been issued for stopping the grant of licences for the sale of liquor along national and state highways and over a distance of 500 metres from the outer edge of the highway or a service lane alongside, including Highways passing through the Municipal Corporation Limit and 1 April 2017 was fixed as the date for phasing out existing licences.

1st Clarification

7. As expected this judgment stirred up the hornet's nest as it was going to have direct impact on business of many people as well as loss of revenue to States. Thus in all 68 review applications were filed by the States like A.P., Telangana, H.P., Karnataka, T.N., Kerala, Sikkim, Meghalaya and the matter was again heard by 3 judges Bench, which slightly modified the order, but the spirit of original orders kept as it is. States including Maharashtra did not choose to file any appeal.

8. The limit of 500 meter was reduced in certain areas having population of 20000 or less and the order was modified as ,“In the case of areas comprised in local bodies with a population of 20,000 people or less, the distance of 500 metres shall stand reduced to 220 metres".

9. The States like sikkim and Meghalaya considering their unique geographical position were exempted from the direction of 500 mtrs.

10. Considering the different exercise year period in different states, the period of phasing out of liquor licenses has been increased to 30/09/2017 in some states.

2nd Clarification - A Boon ?

11. Now recently, one NGO, viz. Arrive Safe society of Chandigarh challenged the order of Chandigarh Admin. order of reclassifying the intersectoral roads on the ground that it circumvents the order of Apex Court. However, the Punjab and haryana high Court rejected the petition and hence the NGO approached Apex Court  (vide SLP No. (Civ.) 10243/2017). But to the dismay of the NGO, the Apex Court ( Coram : Hon. Chief Justice J.S. Khehar, Hon. Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Hon. L. Nageshwar Rao, JJ) upheld the reclassifying of the roads and observed that,

"The purpose of the directions contained in the order dated 15 December 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, before the Court."

12. This 2nd Clarification will be welcomed by all the "affected persons". But the problem again lies about its interpretation. The questions that may crop up like Whether reclassification / denotification of Highways is necessary for the applicability of the Judgement ? If yes , Whether respective Govts are really interested in doing so ? Or does it mean that the liquor shops only within the close proximity of Highways are still banned, which are generally outside the city limits and those are in city limits are exempted and allowed to restart the business?

13. Most of us I am sure for the first time came to know fro the first time that the some of the prominent city roads were actually highways, until the said judgment !! 

Now the Ball is in the court of respective Governments and Licensing Authorities.. 

Thanks and Regards

(Adv. Rohit Erande)