In Bihar, the Nitish government has made a big amendment in the prohibition law. This law will now give a lot of relief to the drunkards in Bihar. Till now, there was a provision of direct jail if caught drinking alcohol in Bihar which is banned, now one can avoid going to jail by paying fine.
In fact, a few days ago, the Supreme Court had strongly reprimanded the Nitish government regarding the prohibition law. The top court had said whether the judicial system was looked into before bringing the law or not? If it was seen whether there were necessary improvements or not. The court was angry about this because many cases were pending in the Patna High Court itself, in which many judges were engaged. Due to this the entire judicial system of the state started crumbling.
This is the reason that the NDA government, which is facing criticism over the prohibition law, has introduced the Bihar Liquor Prohibition Bill 2022 in the assembly. According to this amendment, the first time caught will get bail from the duty magistrate after depositing the fine. If the offender is not able to pay the fine, he will be sentenced to one month in jail.
Earlier, after the Supreme Court’s rebuke, the government had decided that even if caught drinking alcohol, the accused would be released. Just the accused will have to tell from where he took the liquor.
Under the Prohibition of Alcohol and Excise Act in Bihar, both consumption and sale of liquor is illegal since April 2016. Since this ban, a large number of people are lodged in jails only for drinking alcohol. Most of these people are from the economically weaker sections and poor sections.
The government in Bihar is all-round surrounded by this law. The opposition says that this law is a failure in Bihar. Both the people of the ruling party and the police are involved in the illegal business of liquor. Recently, many people have also died due to the drinking of suspected illegal spurious liquor. However, the administration has denied the role of spurious liquor in many deaths.