HC upholds state’s decision, will not de-regulate methanol trade

JUDGES SAID THAT METHANOL MUST BE REGULATED AS IT IS A DANGEROUS CHEMICAL

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) refused to de-regulate the methanol trade, which has been subjected to stricter norms by the state after a spate of hooch tragedies in the past.

A division bench of justice BR Gavai and justice Dama Seshadri Naidu on May 3, rejected the petitions filed by several methanol manufacturers, challenging the validity of a January 2011 notification issued by the state, making it mandatory to add denaturants and bitterants to methanol before its sale.

Methanol was removed from the purview of the Maharashtra Poisons Rules 1972 in 1991, after 93 people died in the Chhaya Bar hooch tragedy. In 2011, the widely-used chemical was added to the Schedule of the Poisons Rules and again notified as a poison – seven years after another hooch tragedy at Vikhroli claimed 87 lives in 2004.

As methanol was found to be used in both the cases, by issuing the January 2011 notification, the state mandated adding denaturants and bitterants to methanol before its sale. But its use in pharmaceutical industry and bulk drug manufacturing was exempted from the rigour.

The petitioners, including two largest methanol manufacturers in the state, Rashtirya Chemical and Fertilizers and Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals, contended the government had no power to regulate methanol trade affecting persons outside its boundaries, nor can it affect inter-state trade or commerce. They further argued that instead of compelling them to add colourants and bitterants, the state must have maintained checks and balances to prevent adulteration or illicit use of the chemical.

They claimed that adding colorants or bitterants makes methanol impure and unfit for most industrial purposes and when the Central government was contemplating to allow methanol to be used as fuel for ships, the state should not have restricted the traders in Maharashtra from freely dealing in it.

However, the judges said the regulation was justified as methanol is a “dangerous substance.”