Children buying liquor at liquor shops? On hearing this, the judge held his head and gave this order to the Center

The Supreme Court on Monday (November 11, 2024) sought a response from the Center on a petition requesting to direct the formulation of an effective manual and robust policy for mandatory age check at liquor shops and other places of sale.

The petition states that there is an age-related law in the excise policy of various states, under which it is illegal for a person below a certain age to drink or keep alcohol, but there is no concrete system to check the age of consumers or buyers at places of sale or consumption of alcohol. 

The petition opposes the policy of home delivery of liquor and argues that this will increase the addiction of drinking alcohol among younger people rapidly. The petition came up for hearing before a bench of Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai and Justice KV Vishwanathan. The minimum legal age for drinking alcohol in various states and union territories of the country has been fixed between 18 and 25 years.

The NGO Community Against Drunken Driving has filed this petition. Its lawyer Vipin Nair argued for the hearing that there is no system to check the age of consumers or buyers in liquor shops, bars, pubs etc. The petition states that a concrete policy in this regard will help reduce and prevent the problem of drunk driving and will also curb underage drinking. 

The petitioner has suggested that a person guilty of selling, serving or providing alcohol to minors should be fined Rs 50,000 or jailed for three months or both. The Center, all states and union territories have been made respondents in the petition. The bench said that it will issue notice to the Center on this petition and seek a reply.

The court said, 'The notice should be limited to respondent number one (Union of India).' The next hearing of the case will be after three weeks. The petition has requested to make a policy for mandatory age check at all shops, pubs or bars serving alcohol and direct it to implement it. In its plea, the NGO said that as per data collected from various de-addiction centres across the country, one in five patients is between 16 and 19 years of age.