Punjab has become the first State to take the amendment route to make way for liquor sale near highways as the Assembly on Friday passed a legislation enabling hotels, restaurants and clubs to serve alcohol within 500 metres of highways.

The Punjab Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was tabled by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra and was passed by the Assembly during the budget session. MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party were not present as they had earlier staged a walkout during question hour.

The Bill stated that it aims to ensure that hotels, restaurants, clubs and other notified places are allowed to serve alcohol to customers only for consumption within their premises to secure the livelihood of a large segment of population.

However, sale of liquor for takeaway purposes shall be permitted only through licensed vends which shall not be located within 500 metres from the outer range of the National or State Highway or a service lane of those roads. Last year, the SC scrapped licences for liquor sale along highways.

Also Read What is the lowdown on the highway liquor ban

Last year, the Supreme Court banned States and Union Territories from granting licences for sale of liquor along national and state highways across the country, noting that drunken driving was the main culprit for the large number of road accidents in the country.

States such as Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Chandigarh denotified hundreds of kilometres of highways as local roads in order to bypass the Supreme Court ruling.

Punjab is the first State to take the amendment route to make way for liquor sale near highways.

Unfortunate, says petitioner

Harman Sidhu, who filed the petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on sale of liquor along highways, pointing to the death toll caused by drunken driving told The Hindu: “It’s unfortunate that the Punjab government has passed legislation to ‘bypass’ Supreme Court orders on the ban on sale of liquor on highways.”

“The Punjab government should have instead approached the Supreme Court for clarification on any ambiguity, if at all, but this is not the way...it’s lowering the authority of the apex court,” Mr. Sidhu said.

(With inputs from the National Bureau)