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Informist, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday said that the Maharashtra government's rules to restrict purchase of methanol, mandate the addition of bitterant and colourant to methanol before sale to a non-drug manufacturer, and confiscate methanol posessed without a licence are violative of Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution. The state government had brought about these measures in the wake of a hooch tragedy in 1991, in which 250 persons consumed liquor with methanol added in it, and 93 persons lost their lives. 

 

The state government has failed to indicate that the practice of putting such additives would discourage or rather dissuade continuous usage of methanol or affect its chemical composition so that it cannot be used in making spurious liquor, said the apex court. The state government has also not stated how mixing of the additives would definitively prevent deaths, it added.

 

The state government's rules prescribe a regulatory framework that does not prevent the misuse of methanol in liquor which takes place in the unregulated field, said the court. The sub-rule even in the best case of full compliance cannot prevent the misuse it aims to prevent, it said. Thus, the rules cannot be said to bear a reasonable and proximate nexus with the object it seeks to achieve, said the court. It addresses a mischief it does not remedy while imposing a continuous burden on industries, it added.

 

A bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K. Vinod Chandran said that the court does not discredit the intention behind the introduction of the rules. There is no doubt that the state government was confronted with a serious public health concern, it said. Although, the intention in mandating denaturants was identification, yet the intention solely would not pass the test of manifest arbitrariness, said the court. In such circumstances, the rules cannot be said to be reasonable or been made with a rational application of mind in exercising the law-making power, it said. The rules are manifestly arbitrary and lack rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved, violating Article 14 of the Constitution, said the court.

 

The court also took note of the recent hooch tragedies at Bhavnagar, Gujarat and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, which claimed around 13 and 15 lives, respectively, observing that these were a reminder for authorities to wake up and act. History bears eloquent testimony to the fact that complete alcohol prohibition often drives the liquor trade underground, increasing the prevalence of unregulated, lethal brews, said the court. The state of Gujarat has a strict liquor prohibition policy, said the court, adding that it is a dry state. However, Gujarat has witnessed at least 10 major mass hooch tragedies since the state's formation and independence, claiming the lives of over 600 people. It can be safely said that there are five evils associated with prohibition of liquor – loss of revenue on taxes, expenditure on implementation and good money spent on it, corruption in police and excise, illegal distilling, and resultant drug menace, said the court.

 

The top court asked the state government to consider the recommendation of the Parthasarthy Committee that was formed to look into the causes for the liquor tragedy and the measures to be taken. With regard to the seriousness of the issue, it will be in the larger public interest for the state government to consider the report of the committee at the earliest and consider the recommendations and implement them effectively and meaningfully, it said. 

 

Giving certain suggestions to states and Union territories, the court said that the state health and family welfare department should have a comprehensive policy and a specialised cell to handle liquor tragedies. When there are large-scale casualties, public hospitals are in complete chaos in the face of the sudden emergency, it added. A comprehensive disaster management system and policy should be in place for handling such emergencies, it said.

 

There is a need to break the chain of supply and demand of liquor by strict implementation of the state prohibition law, if any, the court said. This will require a multipronged approach by the state government, and will also involve participation of multiple departments such as prohibition department, excise department, police department and others, it said. Any chemical solvent used in the manufacture of the spurious liquor is generally illegally procured from industrial units, said the court. Therefore, monitoring of industrial units by the department of industries would be useful to find out which industrial units are manufacturing such chemical solvents and selling them illegally to liquor makers, it added.

 

Challenging the rules, Balaji Formalin Pvt. Ltd. and others had said that these were not reasonable, and were violative of the fundamental right to carry on occupation, trade or business. Methanol is one of the key ingredients in products like formaldehyde, disinfectants, paraformaldehyde, decorative laminate, paint, and resin manufacture. The mandatory addition of denaturant would make it unsuitable for industrial use, the petitioners said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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