‘Liquor ban means big money for officials’ – Patna HC pulls up state over Bihar’s prohibition law

“Innovative ideas to hoodwink law enforcing agencies have evolved to carry and deliver the contraband. Not only the police officials (and) excise officials, but also officers of the state tax department and the transport department love the liquor ban — for them it means big money,” the Single Bench said.

The court’s observations were in response to a petition by Khagaria resident Mukesh Kumar Paswan, who was suspended as inspector of Bypass Police Station, Patna, in November 2020 after a stash of liquor was found in a raid by the state excise department.

The Patna HC quashed the suspension order against Paswan by calling it an “infringement of natural justice”. At the same time, the Bench said the state government had been unable to properly implement Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 – the law that governs liquor prohibition in the state.

“I find it proper to record here that the Article 47 of the Constitution of India, while (sic) mandating the duty of the state to raise standards of living and to improve the public health at large and as such the state government enacted Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 with the said objective, but for several reasons, it finds itself on the wrong side of the history,” it said.

According to the court, fewer cases are registered against kingpin and syndicate operators in such cases of contravention in comparison to the “magnitude of the cases registered against the poor who consume liquor and those poor people and are prey of hooch tragedy”.

“The life of the majority of the poor section of the state who are facing the wrath of the Act are daily wagers who are only earning members of their family. The Investigating Officer deliberately does not substantiate the allegations made in the prosecution case by any legal document and such lacunae are left and the same allows the mafia (to get away) scot-free in want of evidence by not conducting search, seizure and investigation in accordance with law,” the court said.

An official from the state’s prohibition department said it was “improper to react to the court ruling” but also admitted that the Bench had raised some “valid queries and concerns”.

“It’s tough to implement liquor law in a state with 13 crore people and only 1.4 lakh policemen, who also have other things to do. The liquor law has seen three amendments because it had some inherent follies,” the official said.