Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today gave a major decision saying that the power of the state to make laws on industrial liquor cannot be taken away. The country’s top court has given this decision with a majority of 8:1. A nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court ruled by an 8:1 majority that states have the power to regulate industrial alcohol.
State power cannot be taken away
The Supreme Court today made it clear that the state government has the right to make a law on industrial liquor. His power cannot be taken away. States have the authority to regulate industrial alcohol. Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who included a nine-judge bench, disagreed with the majority judgment that the Center did not have the power to regulate industrial alcohol.
Actually, industrial alcohol is not for human consumption. This alcohol is used only for industrial activities.
Let us tell you that the eighth entry of the State List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution gives the states the power to make laws on the production, possession, transportation, purchase and sale of ‘intoxicating liquor’. Whereas Entry 52 of the Union List and Entry 33 of the Concurrent List mention those industries whose control is “declared by an Act of Parliament to be expedient in the public interest.”
According to the constitutional provisions, both the Parliament and the State Legislatures can make laws on the subjects mentioned in the Concurrent List, but if any Central Law is made on the same subject, it will have precedence over the State Laws. A seven-judge Constitution bench had already ruled against the states on this issue in 1997. The matter regarding the Center having regulatory powers over the production of industrial alcohol was then referred to a nine-judge Constitution bench in 2010.
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