Fines Only, No Jail: Bihar Plans To Dilute Liquor Law After CJI’s Criticism And Clogged Courts
New Delhi, Jan 21: Nudged by the judiciary for clogging courts with cases arising out of Bihar’s prohibition law, the Nitish Kumar government has proposed to amend the state’s anti-liquor legislation to reduce the load on the legal system.
The changes suggested include imposing fines on first-time offenders, instead of sending them to jail. The key amendment will empower an executive magistrate, an official not below the rank of deputy collector, to hear and summarily dispose of cases pertaining to liquor consumption.
“If a person is caught violating the law for the first time, the executive magistrate will hold a summary trial, hear the offender and impose a fine on him or her. The state government will fix the amount of fine to be imposed,” sais Bihar Excise Commissioner B. Kartikey Dhanji.
Failure to pay the penalty could lead to one month of simple imprisonment, he adds.
Under the present law, brought into effect in 2016, first-time offenders can get bail from the police by paying Rs. 50 thousand, but have to still face trial in court. Since most of the people fail to pay the fine, according to sources in the police and judiciary, they also end up going to jail and then applying for regular bail, either in the trial court or high court.
The proposed amendments, said Dhanji, will bring down the number of cases reaching the judiciary.
“It will lessen the burden on courts, giving them time to dispose of other judicial matters with ease,” he said, adding that the provision under the prohibition law that calls for the seizure of vehicles from which liquor is recovered will also be done away with, and vehicles can be released after a fine is paid.
The proposals are likely to be placed before the Bihar assembly in its forthcoming session in February.
In December, 2021, at a seminar held in Vijayawada, Ramana had called the anti-liquor law a short-sighted decision of the Nitish Kumar government. The cases had clogged the state HC and simple bail petitions take a year to get decided, the CJI had said.
Earlier this month the CJI, dismissed an appeal by the Bihar government challenging 40 bail orders given by the Patna HC in liquor-related cases. The CJI had then again raised the issue of clogging in the HC, pointing out that “14 to 15 judges” were engaged in hearing these cases.
