SC to hear plea of Assam retailers against ban on liquor vends

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on February 3 the plea of liquor retailers in Assam seeking modification of its verdict banning the sale of liquor within 500 metres on either side of the national and state highways across the country from April one.
"List it for hearing on February 3," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said when the counsel for All Assam Indian Made Foreign Liquors Retailers' Association sought an urgent hearing of its plea.
Lawyer Subodh Kumar Pathak, appearing for the Association, said the December 15, 2016 judgement needed to be modified as it virtually banned liquor shops in the state as the definition of state highways in the local statute is all inclusive.

The apex court, in its judgemeent, had ordered a ban on all liquor shops on national as well as state highways across the country and made clear that licenses of existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 next year.
It had also directed that all signages indicating the presence of liquor vends will be prohibited on national and state highways.
The fresh plea alleged that the definition of state highway was all-encompassing, thereby affecting a large number of existing liquor shops.

The plea quoted Section 2 of the Assam Highways Act, 1989, as saying that highway means "any public thoroughfare, whether a road, street, lane, bridle path, or a foot-trade, whether surfaced or unsurfaced, whether on land owned by the state government or a local authority or on land belonging to a private person over which the public have or have acquired a right of way by usage, and includes --

(a) Slopes, barn, burrow-pits, footpaths, pavements, and side drains of any such thoroughfare;
(b) All bridges culverts, causeways, carriageways, or other road structures, built on or across such thoroughfares;
(c) Trees, fences, posts, and other highways, accessories and materials and material stacks on the thoroughfare or on land attached to the thoroughfare, but does not include the National Highways as defined under the National Highways Act, 1956."
If the apex court verdict was to be followed in letter and spirit then Assam would have no liquor vend left, the plea contended while seeking modification of the judgement by considering the width of the provision of the local law.