Bihar govt. to bring fresh changes to liquor law to unclog court cases
The Hindu
Ever since law was passed in April 2016, govt has brought in amendments to it several times
The Bihar government has decided to bring in fresh amendments to the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 in the coming Assembly session, apparently to cut down arrests under the stringent law and “unclog the court cases”.
On March 8, a team of officials from Rajasthan visited Bihar to study the impact of total prohibition and had an hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. While hearing a petition the same day, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh, asked the Bihar government to place before the court the social and legislative impact of the liquor law and to collect data on the number of prosecutions under the Act.
While referring to the increase in number of cases in lower courts and the Patna High Court after the law was passed and which had put additional workload on the already overburdened judiciary, the court said the government should have thought about the fallout of its policy decision before bringing in law. The Bench further said the State had to look into all aspects before bringing these kinds of laws, and fixed it for further hearing in May first week.
Appearing for the Bihar, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar informed the court that the government was considering bringing an amendment to the law in the coming Assembly session to make it more efficacious.
Ever since the law was passed in April 2016, the government had brought in amendments to it several times.
Earlier, a provision of the law, termed by Opposition leaders as draconian, which ensured the arrest of all family members even if one of them was caught drinking liquor, along with community fines, was amended and done away with.
Recently, Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana stated that the new liquor law was a case study of “lack of legislative foresight” and had “clogged courts with bail applications”.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.