Patna HC quashes Nitish order on liquor ban

DHNS

Patna, 01 Oct 2016: The Patna High Court on Friday quashed the Bihar government order banning the sale and consumption of Indian-made foreign liquor. This has come as a severe jolt to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who relentlessly pursued the prohibition policy and had made Bihar a dry state from this fiscal.  

 

Besides, the high court termed the government notification “ultra-vires to the Constitution” and hence, was “not enforceable”. The order was passed by the division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Navniti Prasad Singh. With this, the April 5 notification of the state government to stop the consumption and sale of alcohol in the state stands quashed.

 

The amended prohibition law will, however, come into force with effect from October 2. “Nitish Kumar has convened an emergency Cabinet meeting in this regard on October 2,” a source said here on Friday.

 

Initially, the Nitish regime had banned the manufacture, trade, sale and consumption of country-made liquor since April 1, but later imposed a blanket ban on all types of liquor, including IMFL, in the state.

 

As a consequence, several petitions were filed by liquor traders in the court challenging the government notification, which had stringent penal provisions. The division bench had on May 20 reserved its order.

 

Following the high court ruling on Friday, Nitish convened a crucial high-level meeting with top ministers and bureaucrats and discussed threadbare the amended liquor legislation, which has been passed by both the Houses of the state legislature and given consent by Governor Ramnath Kovind. The amended liquor law is expected to be notified on October 2, when the nation celebrates Gandhi Jayanti.

 

Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore said the court had quashed the April 5 notification. However, he refused to comment on whether the high court ruling would have any effect on the new prohibition law, which is likely to come into force from Sunday. “I will be able to comment on the issue only after going through the ruling of the high court,” Kishore observed.