KOCHI: Kerala High Court has observed that the right to consume alcohol is not a fundamental right in the nature of ‘right to choose’, ‘right to be left alone’, ‘right to privacy, or ‘right to life’ under Article 21 of the Constitution.
And the ruling by the HC Division Bench came on a petition filed by Anoop M S of Perumbavoor challenging the state government decision to close down bar hotels. The petitioner submitted that the present policy was framed without any specific or scientific study. Though the consumption of liquor is not prohibited in Kerala, the policy indirectly prohibits consumption. The state cannot prohibit a lawful thing by introducing a policy, the petitioner contended.
The order said as a matter of policy, the state has monopoly on the sale of liquor. Earlier, Kerala made a ‘futile foray into prohibition’, but this was rescinded in 1967. With the state accounting for almost 14 per cent of the national consumption of alcohol, the Executive felt the liquor consumption in the state had turned into a social malaise. So it formulated a policy to prohibit liquor in the state in a phased manner.
The HC pointed out that the availability of liquor at prices much lower than those prevailing in the other states is said to have induced a drinking culture in Kerala which has had telling consequences on social behaviour and institutions. By 2013, Kerala had emerged as the state with the highest alcohol consumption rate per person--8.3 l It accounted for 16 per cent of the total alcohol sales nationally. Regulating or proscribing the manufacture and sale of liquor are intermediary steps, collateral or contributory, to achieve the main objective- ‘prohibiting consumption’, the HC said.