At the stroke of midnight on Friday night, all those bars and pubs in the country that were situated less than 500 metres away from a national highway, went dry. It was officially 1st April, and a Supreme Court order banning liquor being sold within 500 metres of a highway had come into effect. When the order had been passed on December 15, there had been widespread confusion about what the ban entailed.
Was it just limited to liquor vends on the Highway, or did it include any hotel, restaurant or bar serving alcohol?
Places like Chandigarh, ironically, the home of the petitioner who had filed a PIL for the ban, realized that all their main roads were in fact either a state or a national highway.
By the evening of March 31, there was no ambiguity. The Supreme Court clarified that its liquor ban included every point of sale of alcohol on the highway – from a simple liquor store to a posh restaurant.
It has been more than 48 hours since the order came into effect, and while the hospitality industry and state governments work together to come up with a solution, Twitter has been abuzz with reactions.
While some Twitterati are hoping for a positive outcome, many have ridiculed the new rule, calling it ‘outrageous ’.
Reactions Supporting the Ban
Reactions Against the Ban
As per 2015 statistics by Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, drink driving caused 55,504 accidents between 2013 and 2015, resulting in 20,186 deaths and 58,326 injuries.