The Delhi government’s excise department has directed hotels, clubs and restaurants serving liquor to verify the age of their clients through hard copies of government-issued identity proofs after violations of the legal drinking age norm were detected.  In Delhi, liquor is served only to persons aged 25 years and above. Delhi is now the only metropolitan city with a high drinking age, even in Mumbai, only hard liquor is barred for those under 25, while wine and beer is allowed at 21. In major global cities such as New York and London, the drinking age is 21 and 18 respectively. Interestingly, the voting age is 18, while the minimum age of marriage for women is 18 and for men it is 21 in India.

The excise department of the Delhi government, during routine inspections by its teams in recent days, found customers younger than 25 years having alcohol at bars, clubs and restaurants. The inspections also revealed that some customers were consuming liquor pretending to have completed 25 years. Complaints were also received by the department that some excise licensees were serving liquor to underage persons, according to a circular issued by the excise department.

As per the data of the excise department, there are around 1,100 HCR (hotel, club, restaurant) category premises in the city including nearly 700 restrobars. The hotels and clubs with excise licence number around 165 and 50.  Strangely most HCR violates the drinking age norms while serving liquor. Under the Delhi Excise Act, 2009, no person or licensed vendor or his employee or agent will sell or deliver liquor to any person apparently under the age of 25 years for personal or others’ consumption.  The violations of the age restriction norms were reviewed by the department.

"All the licence holders of hotels, clubs, restaurants (HCR) are hereby directed to be more careful and to not serve liquor to any person under the age of 25 years without verifying the age through government-issued IDs," stated a circular issued by the department.

"In this regard, attention is invited to section 23 of The Delhi Excise Act, 2009 which reads as, "Prohibition of sale to certain persons, - 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," Deputy Commissioner (Excise) Tanvir Ahmed said in a circular issued to hotels, clubs and restaurants.

"All the license holders are advised to verify customers’ age only with the physical ID instead of virtual IDs shown on the mobile phones (except govt. portals for eg. Digilocker) to minimize the chances of verification of age through fake/edited digital IDs," read the circular.

The legal drinking age was a lingering issue in Delhi as it was lower in the NCR cities of Nodia, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Under the excise policy 2021-22, now scrapped, there was a plan to lower the legal drinking age to 21 years but it failed to materialise as the policy itself came under attack over allegations of corruption and violations of rules.

Further, in pursuance of a campaign launched recently by Delhi to make the city drug-free in the next three years, the excise department has directed the licensees to take e-pledge on its official website and conspicuously display the certificate at the hotels, clubs and restaurants. The department has advised the licensees to create awareness among their staff and customers to cooperate in stopping drug abuse and stay away from its use to have a healthy life.

"To curb the menace of drugs, it is decided to start a drive wherein all the existing licensees are requested to take e-pledge on the website www.pledge.mygov.in/fightagainstdrugabuse/ and generate the certificate and to display the same certificate in the restaurant at conspicuous place to be viewed easily by the public/customers visiting the Hotels/Clubs/Restaurant Further, it is also advised to all the licensees to make aware all their staff and customers to consciously cooperate in stopping drug abuse and stay away from drugs to live a healthy life," a notification said.