New Delhi, Sep 18 The Supreme Court on Friday suggested a series of measures for states and Union territories to prevent hooch tragedies, calling for a coordinated, multi-department approach to curb the illegal manufacture, transportation and sale of spurious liquor.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran issued a slew of suggestions while quashing Rules 18A and 18B of the Maharashtra Poisons Rules, which were inserted through a 2011 notification after a major hooch tragedy in Mumbai.
"History bears eloquent testimony to the fact that a complete alcohol ban often drives the liquor trade underground, increasing the prevalence of unregulated, lethal brews," Justice Pardiwala wrote in the verdict and gave a slew of suggestions instead.
The suggestions emphasise breaking the chain of supply and demand of illicit liquor, strengthening enforcement at state borders and tightening the regulation of methanol, a chemical that can be diverted for use in manufacturing spurious liquor.
"As liquor is manufactured in the state and also brought from outside, implementation steps should involve strict monitoring at the state borders. In this regard, the state transport department being vigilant at the borders would help control illegal transport of liquor in the state...," the verdict said.
Implementing peripheral laws concerning procurement, manufacture, transportation, sale and consumption of liquor within the state would also prove critical in preventing hooch tragedies from occurring, it added.
"The state police, in coordination with the prohibition department and the excise department, respectively, can identify and bring to book local breweries, which are generally located in semi-industrial areas, congested areas in the urban parts of the state," the court said.
Any chemical solvent used in the manufacture of spurious liquor is generally illegally procured from industrial units, it added.
"Therefore, monitoring of industrial units by the department of industries would be useful to find out which industrial units are manufacturing such chemical solvents and selling them illegally to liquor makers," the verdict said.
It said the existing rules in a state, if any, which regulate methanol should be amended to include that vehicles used to transport liquor shall not be released on a bond or surety if any rule is breached, till a court orders otherwise.
"The state rules governing the grant of licence and permit require a comprehensive re-look, so as to ensure that a licence or permit is not granted as a matter of course but only after due verification of the antecedents, credentials and genuine requirement of the applicant," the court said.
Every licensee and permit-holder dealing in or consuming methanol should be required to maintain a record of the consumption and the closing stock, reconciled at periodic intervals, so that any unaccounted or unexplained shortfall between the opening stock, consumption and the closing stock is flagged and investigated at the earliest, it said.
"Any person who is found to have defaulted or breached the conditions of the licence or permit, or the rules made thereunder, should be liable to have such licence or permit suspended or cancelled, as the case may be, and should further be debarred from being granted any fresh licence or permit," the verdict said.
Methanol should be transported in dedicated tankers earmarked exclusively for that purpose, so as to eliminate the possibility of pilferage or substitution, it said.
