Patna (Bihar): The Patna high court has raised serious questions on the effectiveness of the liquor ban in Bihar, which came into force eight years ago in April 2016.
The court labeled the liquor ban provisions as ‘draconian’ and noted that the majority of the poor section of the state, comprising daily wagers who are the sole breadwinners of their families, bear the brunt of the Act.
The order came on October 29 when the court was hearing a petition filed by Mukesh Kumar Paswan, of the Bypass police station in Patna.
In his order, Justice Purnendu Singh said:
“The Article 47 of the Constitution of India while mandating the duty of the State to raise standards of living and to improve the public health at large and as such 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.”
“The prohibition has, in fact, given rise to unauthorized trade of liquor and other contraband items,” the order added.
According to PIB data, only 697 cases were registered in 2019 under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Act (NDPA), 1985 in Bihar which increased by 110% to 1469 cases in 2021.
As per the state government data, 1.6 crore litres of foreign liquor and 1.05 crore litres of country liquor were seized in the state from April 2016 to May 14, 2023.
The case
Mukesh Kumar Paswan was police inspector in Bypass police station in 2021 when the excise department had raided a godown and recovered illicit foreign liquor worth Rs 4 lakh. The godown was just 500 meters away from Bypass police station, so it was alleged by the excise department that Mukesh along with chowkidar Lalu Paswan may be involved in the sale of illicit liquor.
Mukesh was suspended in February 2021, and a show-cause notice was issued to him regarding his alleged negligence in enforcing excise and prohibition laws, which constitutes a breach of the Government Official Conduct Rule, 1976.
Next, Mukesh submitted his detailed show cause reply in March 2021 denying all the allegations.
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Later, an inquiry was initiated against him, which concluded that he should be dismissed as a penalty.
The government ordered that he should be demoted to the basic pay scale of police sub inspector for five years and shall not get “Officer-In-Charge or any responsible post for 10 years”.
“He shall not be posted as Officer-In-Charge or any responsible post for 10 years from the date of issuance of this order,” the government order said.
In 2023, Mukesh appealed to the Patna high court against this order.
After going through the arguments of both sides, the court concluded that the punishment to the petitioner was predetermined. “I set aside and quash the suspension order and the penalty order.”
‘Police in tandem with smugglers’
The high court order said:
“The draconian provisions have become handy for the police, who are in tandem with the smugglers. Innovative ideas to hoodwink law enforcing agencies have evolved to carry and deliver the contraband. Not only the police officials, excise officials, but also officers of the state tax department and the transport department love liquor ban, for them it means big money.”
“The number of cases registered is few against the kingpin/syndicate operators in comparison to the magnitude of the cases registered against the poor who consume liquor and those poor people who are prey of hooch tragedy,” the order added.
In October this year, a hooch tragedy killed 35 people in Siwan and Saran districts.
Last year, prohibition, excise and registration minister Sunil Kumar had said there was official data of around 200 hooch-related deaths in Bihar since April 2016 but experts claim that the real data could be much higher.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) claims that so far more than 300 people have died from consuming illicit liquor.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, “Nexus between politicians, the police and liquor mafia has resulted in a flourishing illegal liquor trade worth Rs 30,000 crore every year.”
He added that more than 300 people have died in the state due to consumption of spurious liquor since April 2016.
Bihar’s former IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das said, “Liquor ban is a complete failure in the state and it is because police are not working effectively. If you want to stop the illegal liquor trade you have to first nab big mafias who run the trade. But, this is not happening. Police are arresting poor people and careers of liquor. If big mafias will be arrested then only liquor law can work effectively.”
Mahendra Suman, Patna-based social activist who has worked among the Dalits and Adivasi community for decades termed the liquor ban “anti-poor”.
“Liquor is part of people’s food culture. Drinking is a bad addiction but not a criminal Act. But the Bihar government is criminalising liquor consumers and its victims are poor,” he told The Wire.
The high court said that the ultimate victims of this Act are the poor and their families.
“The majority of the poor section of the state who are facing 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 documents and such lacunae are left and the same allows the mafia scot free in want of evidence by not conducting search, seizure and investigation in accordance with law,” the court order said.
According to official data, 8.69 lakh persons have been arrested under the liquor law till May 14, 2023. The state has not updated the data since 2023.
What the court has said in its order has been reiterated by experts for years. The Wire had also done an extensive report on this.
“We have been saying for years that most of the arrested and jailed persons under this law are poor and belong to backward and dalit communities. Police have imposed multiple cases on one person and they are languishing in jails for years without bail and hearing,” said Praveen Kumar, founder of LAW Foundation, which works with persons who can’t afford legal assistance.
Kumar added that Musahars, who are amongst the poorest of the Scheduled Castes, are the biggest victims of this draconian law. “If one person is arrested in a liquor case from a Musahar basti, the police often goes to that Musahar colony and randomly arrests dozens of other persons.”