CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has sought reply from the state and the Tasmac to a petition challenging the single-system operator-based tender for the revised empty liquor bottle buyback scheme. Justice Hemant Chandangoudar issued notice to the respondents to file the reply within two weeks.
The petition, filed by D Kumaraguru of Villupuram, said the impugned tender dated August 31, 2026 provides for appointment of a single system operator for the whole state for a period of seven years for taking back the empty bottles through reverse vending machine and return the deposit collected from the purchaser of the liquor bottles from the Tasmac outlets.
While the respondents are undoubtedly entitled to introduce modern technology and improve the environmental management of post-consumption liquor bottles, the technological modernisation cannot be implemented in an arbitrary or unnecessarily exclusionary manner when an established local collection and recycling sector already exists, the petitioner said, and prayed for the court to stay the proceedings of the tender and quash the tender notification.