Excise rule prohibiting sale of liquor to below 25-yr-old not applicable to drinking age: HC

It is a "wrong notion" that the minimum prescribed age for drinking liquor is 25 years under the Delhi Excise Act which only prohibits its sale to people below that age, the Delhi High Court ruled on Thursday.

The court passed the verdict while dismissing a petition seeking to set aside and quash Section 23 of Delhi Excise Act, 2009 on the ground that it prescribes 25 years as legal age for buying and drinking alcohol in Delhi.

"The age of drinking has nothing to do with the prohibition imposed by the Delhi government under the Excise Act. We see no reason to quash Section 23 of the Act which prohibits a licensee to sell or deliver liquor to a person of less than 25 years of age," said a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and C Hari Shankar.

The section states that "No person or licensed vendor or his employee or agent shall sell or deliver any liquor to any person apparently under the age of twenty five years, whether for consumption by self or others."
The bench said: "The petitioner has assumed that it is the age of drinking. It a wrong notion in the mind of the petitioner. We see no reason to quash the said section. There is no substance in the petition and, therefore, it is dismissed."
The petition has said, "A person coming to Delhi from a state which legalises drinking at the age of 18 years is likely to continue consuming alcohol thus criminalising their behaviour. On the other hand, young persons from Delhi travel to states which have lower legal ages to consume alcohol which raises the question how a person by moving his/her location becomes responsible."