Shut down all bars attached to liquor outlets: Madras HC

Chennai: In a significant ruling that could affect the state’s revenue and consumers of alcoholic beverages, the Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) to close down in six months, all the bars established in its retail shops across the State.

State government-owned TASMAC runs retail liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu since 2003 and before that private firms were allowed. Bars attached to such retail shops are however run by private parties. Wholesale liquor supply is also vested with TASMAC. Justice C Saravanan, who gave the ruling last week (January 31), also held that any person found in an intoxicated condition at a public place, should be punished under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937.

The consumption of alcohol as per the Act and the rules thereunder is permissible only in private space and/or in one’s home. If TASMAC has to continue to encourage the consumption of liquor in the so-called bars, the substantive law under the Act has to be amended, taking note of the changes in the society and in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court taken in 2004.

Since the practice of running bars has been in vogue since 2003, which was not strictly in accordance with the provisions of the 1937 Act and Article 47 (dealing with public health and bringing prohibition) of the Constitution, the legislature may bring in suitable legislation to amend the Act, the judge, however, said.

Till the law is amended and proper rules are framed, which are in tune and consistent with the provisions of the 1937 Prohibition Act, TASMAC shall refrain from granting licenses/permits to the petitioners and others to do support service or business in the sale of snack or collecting used bottles, the judge said. TASMAC may take suitable steps to recall the tender called for, instead of encouraging violation of law by its consumers. Commercial expediency to garner profit cannot justify the continuance of bars, the judge added.

The judge gave the ruling while dismissing a batch of over 250 writ petitions from the erstwhile bar owners challenging the tender floated by the TASMAC on December 14, 2021, inviting applications for running eateries in the ‘bars’ (attached to retail outlets), numbering several thousand across the state.

Statutorily, the TASMAC had been given powers only to engage itself in the wholesale and retail sale of liquor alone. It has not been given the power to allow consumers to drink liquor in public or in the so-called ‘bars. It cannot be seen to encourage the violation of Section 4-A of the 1937 Act, even though the intention of introducing this section was to discourage persons from going to ‘wet’ areas and return intoxicated in the ‘dry’ areas when the prohibition was still in force, the judge said.

The provision as it stands today does not permit a person to be in public in an intoxicated state. Therefore, the respondents TASMAC as a state monopoly can only confine itself with ‘wholesale’ and ‘retail sale’ of alcohol/liquor and cannot be allowed to be seen actively encouraging a person to consume alcohol in public space and violate law.

The practice of TASMAC to allow mushrooming of ‘Bar’ within the meaning of Tamil Nadu Liquor Retail Vending (In Shops and Bars) Rules, 2003 is contrary to the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937, the judge said and directed TASMAC to take steps to close down the bars attached to the TASMAC shops within six months.