Supreme Court upholds highway liquor ban with some relaxation; scores of pubs/bars to go dry from April 1

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reduced from 500 to 220 metres the distance of liquor vends from highways in areas with a population of up to 20,000.

The December 15 order banning liquor ends up to 500 metres from national, state highways stands, the SC said.

The distance relaxation also extended to hill states of Sikkim, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh, the SC bench comprising of CJI JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and LN Rao said.

People who got licence for liquor vends prior to the Dec 15, 2016 verdict can operate till September 30, 2017. Others will have to shut down from tomorrow, the SC order said.

The apex court's verdict comes on a batch of petitions - both by some states and private parties - seeking modification of its order banning liquor vendors along national and state highways.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had contended that the December 15, 2016 judgement needed rectification as the "budget of the states will go for a six".

"Errors that may have crept in may be looked at. The error that has crept in is that what is good for national highways is good for state highways,” he said.

"All of India cannot be compared. Some towns in totality are situated along the state highways and if you say that liquor vends cannot be allowed in the vicinity of 500 meters then where will they go," he told the bench.

As Rohatgi named some small towns saying that the restriction of 500 meters would cross them and contended that because of the ban "the budget of every state has gone for a six", the bench said: "You are not telling us which town will go."

The court said this as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and several other senior lawyers including KK Venugopal, CA Sundram, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan, Raju Ramachandran and others told the court that its December 15 ban was hurting the state exchequer and the order was unconstitutional.