Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government on Wednesday did a somersault on its liquor policy by telling the High Court that its objective was not to implement total liquor ban. The Government had on August 22 last declared its liquor policy envisaging total booze ban in ten years and had since then claimed that this policy would be implemented at any cost.
While the court was taking up a batch of petitions filed by bar owners opposing the liquor policy, senior lawyer and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the State Government, said that total ban on liquor or its liberalization was not the Government’s goal but the aim was to bring down consumption of liquor in the State in phases.
A one-member commission which looked into the subject had pointed out that liquor consumption was going up and the Government was trying to reduce this in this context, Sibal told the court, adding that changes in liquor policy on the basis of new facts were natural and inevitable. The changes would be on the basis of the commission’s report, he said.
But the court asked the Government to explain the basis on which it had given beer-wine parlour licences to the 418 bars which were closed down for lack of facilities. It also asked whether the formulation of the liquor policy was based on scientific studies. It pointed out that there was no indication of consumption coming down due to the liquor policy.
The Government had on August 22 last year announced its liquor policy which it claimed was aimed at the eradication of the menace called liquor from the Kerala society within ten years by closing down all bars except those in five-star hotels before October 2 last year and closing down ten percent of all the retail outlets every year so that liquor would not be available after ten years.