Liquor ban and notes ban: Finally, some relief

Two Supreme Court observations in ongoing litigations have come as  salutary developments.
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Two Supreme Court observations in ongoing litigations have come as  salutary developments. One opens a window for those who could not deposit demonetised notes for genuine reasons, the second allows liquor sale on the stretches of highways that fall within city limits. T

he highest court has acknowledged that it was harsh to close all options for those who may have missed depositing old notes due to terminal illness or other pressing logistical reasons, and that denying them another opportunity to deposit old notes was tantamount to depriving people of their own money. That has come as a relief for many—elderly parents of NRIs, ailing citizens, those living aboard, poor women who secretly squirrelled away cash from hard labour for their children’s marriage, education or family calamities.

The Chief Justice of India’s stern direction to the government ensures a temporary window will be opened for them. The Centre though has to ensure dirty money does not enter the system. Similarly, the obiter dicta that denotification of stretches of highway that fall within the city limits would not violate its earlier order is welcome.

That is what the Punjab government had done, attracting the litigation. Though most sound bites on this have emanated from the Brigade Road regulars of Bengaluru and the Cyber Hub buffs of Gurugram, it has hurt many small enterprises—restaurants, pubs and beer bars—in almost all cities and metros.

The complaints of the well-heeled are heard the loudest, but India has a stake in these aspirational citizens too. Not to mention the start-ups grown around this ecology. It’s nobody’s case that liquor intake should go up, but as the honourable judges observed, “high-speed drunken driving” on the highways is what the courts tried to curb, not the right of the city-bred to unwind. Not that our sluggish city traffic allows much dare-devilry. More than anything else, in both cases, there is a certain opening up to rational thinking that offers cause for hope.

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