HC admits petitions against Guj Prohibition Act as ‘maintainable’

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Monday held as maintainable a batch of petitions challenging the provisions of Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, which bans the manufacture, sale and consumption of liquor in the state.

A division bench comprising chief justice Vikram Nath and Justice Biren Vaishnav said the court held the petitions as “maintainable and be heard and decided on merits,” as it rejected the state government’s objections to the same.

The final hearing was postponed to October 12 after advocate general Kamal Trivedi sought more time for the state to explore the option of approaching the Supreme Court. “If at all the government is thinking of testing it before a higher court, it needs some accommodation,” he said. To this, the chief justice asserted, “Who is stopping you from that? That is your right”.

The bench had earlier reserved its order on the preliminary question of maintainability on June 23. Pointing out that the Supreme Court had upheld the Act in its 1952 judgment, Trivedi had argued that a law validated by the top court could be held invalid, “but for that purpose, the forum is the Supreme Court and not this court”.

The petitioners, however, argued that the matter should be taken up on merits, as the provisions challenged in the pleas are materially different from what they were in 1951 as they have been amended over the years. They added that the right to privacy was not recognised as a fundamental right in 1951 when the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the provisions in the prohibition law.

The batch of petitions have challenged the constitutional validity of sections section 12, 13 (total prohibition on manufacture, purchase, import, transportation, export, sale, possession, use and consumption of liquor), 24-1B, 65 of the Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, and sought them to be declared as ultra vires Article 246 of the Constitution.