The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed alcohol consumption an acute social problem in Kerala.
"The state of Kerala is facing an acute social problem because of the widespread and excessive consumption of alcohol.
"It appears that almost 14 percent of the national consumption of alcohol occurs in this comparatively territorially small state (indeed a dubious distinction), which also justifiably boasts of 100 percent literacy," said a bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh, while upholding Kerala's liquor policy restricting service of liquor at bars in five star hotels only.
"Faced with this social malaise, the state government appears to have considered that banning the consumption of hard alcohol in public may have the effect of bringing down and arresting the ever escalating addiction to liquor," it noted.
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