New Delhi, Apr 1: On Friday the SC confirmed the liquor ban on state & National highways that was imposed on Dec 15. At the same time it relaxed the ban to some extent. The court reduced the distance of liquor vends from highways to areas having a population of 20,000 from 500 to 220 metres. The court stated that those owners of liquor vends who have got the licence ton operate the shops, prior to Dec 15 can go ahead till Sept 30 while other will have to close their shops from today. The distance relaxation was also hill states of been applicable in Sikkim, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh. A bench having the Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice L Nageswara Rao said that the liquor shops are being shifted to a distance of 500 meters from either side of both national and state highways keeping in view “interest of the public health”. A newspaper reported that this order of the SC has come as a big blow to Goa as around 3,000 liquor owners including bars, restaurants, wholesalers, retailers and warehouses operating will have to close down business.
However, three days back, the Goa government had claimed that with this order of the SC only 768 outlets will be affected. As per the state executives, this order and its impact negatively affect the state tourism and trade. It might happen that the liquor business may collapse in the state. However, the SC exempted Sikkim and Meghalaya from the ban order because of the 82 per cent forest cover in Sikkim and the peculiar hilly terrain in Meghalaya. However, Himachal Pradesh has been brought in the ban limit of 220 metres as applicable to local bodies adjoining the highways with 20,000 or less population. On Thursday, the SC had stayed its order following a number of petitions by both states and private parties that requested some sort of changes on the order of banning liquor vends along national and state highways. The court declined to provide any relief to Tamil Nadu which had sought more time to implement the Dec 15, 2016 order. The top court yesterday also made it clear that hotels, pubs and restaurants in the vicinity that serve alcohol, too, would have to take it off the menu to keep the roads safe. In Delhi, the court verdict will lead to closure of about 50 liquor vends, 65 hotels and restaurants, located along the six national highways along national capital, their licence to serve liquor. This will include hotels in Delhi Aerocity. In neighbouring Gurgaon, too, many five-star hotels and restaurants such as those in DLF Cyber Hub along the National Highway 48 would also be hit. In Maharashtra, the order could impact over 8,000 establishments.
