# P. N. KAUSHAL ETC v. UNION OF INDIA - **Citation:** [1979] 1 S.C.R. 122 - **Court:** Supreme Court of India - **Decided:** 1978-08-16 - **Bench:** V. R. Krishna Iyer, D. A. Desai, 0. Chinnappa Reddy - **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/p-n-kaushal-etc-v-union-of-india-7566 - **Pages:** 37 ## Headnote Punjab ExcisP Act 1 of 1914, Section 59(/)(v) and Punjab Liquor Licence Rules 1956-Rule 37--Constitutional Validity of-Business in intoxicantsState if has power to prohibit absolutely .every forni of activity relating thereto. Constitution of India, 1950-Part IV of the Constitution must enter the soul of Parr Ill and the laws niade by the State-Articles 38 and 47-Progressive implenientation of ;he policy ·of prohibition. The Punjab Excise Act 1914 contemplates grant of licences for trading in (Indian) foreign and country liquor. Section 59(f) (v) of the Act provides for the fixing of the days during which any licensed premises may or may D not be kept open for sale of liquor and the closure of such premises on special occasions. The conditions of the licence includes restrictions of varlOus types including obligation not to sell liquor on certain days and during certain hours. Rule 37(a) as it originally stood prohibited sale of liquor on Tuesdays upto 2 p.m. and also on the 7th day of every month. This rule was amended by a notification whereby in place of "Tuesdays upto 2 p.m. plus the 7th of every 1nonth" "Tuesday and Friday in very week'', was substituted as the E days when liquor vending was prohibited. "Note" appended to the said ruie exempted tourist bungalows and rest-houses run by the Department of the State Government from the opera·tion of the condition regarding closure. Consequent upon the change of days, the licence fee payable by a vendor · \Vas reduced from Rs. 12,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- to compensa-te for the marginal loss caused by two days' closure. F G H The petitioners who were licensed vendors of liquor in the State challenged the constitutionality of section 59(f) (v) and the vires of Rule 37 on the ground that section 59(f) (v) vested an unguided, uncanalised, vague and vagarious power in the Financial Commissioner to fix the days or number of days and hours or number of hours without laying down a•ny guidelines, indicators or controlling poin':s. The State on lhe other hand contended that the subject-n1atter of the legislation being a deleterious sub&tance (liquor), requiring restriction.'i in the direction of moderation in consumption, regulation regarding the days and hours of sale and appropriateness in the matter of location of the places of sale. reasonableness and arbitrariness mu.st be tested on the touchstone of principled pragmatism and living realisn:, Dismissing the writ petitions, HELD: (a) Section 59(f)(v) of the Punjab Excise Act 1914 is valid. [158 CJ • • .. I ' P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, J.) 123 (b) The regulation of the number of days and the duration of the houl3 when supply of alcohol by licensees shall be stopped is quite reasonable whether it be two days in a week or more. [158D] (c) The exercise of the power to regulate, including to direct closure for some days every week, being reasonable and calculated to produce temperan.:e A , "'" and promote social welfare, cannot be invalidated on the imaginary possibility Qf misuse. The test of the reasonableness of a provision is not the theoretical B possibility of tyranny. [158E] -i. (d) There is enough guideline in the scheme and provisions of the Punjab Excise Act to govern the exercise of the power under sections 58 and 59. [ l 58E] ~ (1) (a) The Constitutional test of reasonableness, built into Article 19 aOO -0f arbitrariness implied in Article 14 has a relativist touch. The degree Of C • \ ) constitutional restriction and the strategy of meaningful enforcement will na·turaUy depend on the Third World setting, the ethos of our people, the economic compulsions of today and of human tomorrow. While scanning the rationale <>f an Indian temperance measure it would be useful to remember the univenral evil in alcohol and the particularly pernicious consequences of the drink ~vii in India. SociGtal realities shape social justice. [133H, 134A-B} (b) "\Ve, the people of India" have enacted Article 47 and "we the Justices <>f India ## Text _Characters 0–39,640 of 92,144. This is a partial read: ask again with offset=39640 for what follows._ A B c 122 P. N. KAUSHAL ETC. V. UNION OF INDIA August 16, 1978 [V. R. KRISHNA IYER, D. A. DESAI AND 0. CHINNAPPA REDDY, JJ.) Punjab ExcisP Act 1 of 1914, Section 59(/)(v) and Punjab Liquor Licence Rules 1956-Rule 37--Constitutional Validity of-Business in intoxicantsState if has power to prohibit absolutely .every forni of activity relating thereto. Constitution of India, 1950-Part IV of the Constitution must enter the soul of Parr Ill and the laws niade by the State-Articles 38 and 47-Progressive implenientation of ;he policy ·of prohibition. The Punjab Excise Act 1914 contemplates grant of licences for trading in (Indian) foreign and country liquor. Section 59(f) (v) of the Act provides for the fixing of the days during which any licensed premises may or may D not be kept open for sale of liquor and the closure of such premises on special occasions. The conditions of the licence includes restrictions of varlOus types including obligation not to sell liquor on certain days and during certain hours. Rule 37(a) as it originally stood prohibited sale of liquor on Tuesdays upto 2 p.m. and also on the 7th day of every month. This rule was amended by a notification whereby in place of "Tuesdays upto 2 p.m. plus the 7th of every 1nonth" "Tuesday and Friday in very week'', was substituted as the E days when liquor vending was prohibited. "Note" appended to the said ruie exempted tourist bungalows and rest-houses run by the Department of the State Government from the opera·tion of the condition regarding closure. Consequent upon the change of days, the licence fee payable by a vendor · \Vas reduced from Rs. 12,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- to compensa-te for the marginal loss caused by two days' closure. F G H The petitioners who were licensed vendors of liquor in the State challenged the constitutionality of section 59(f) (v) and the vires of Rule 37 on the ground that section 59(f) (v) vested an unguided, uncanalised, vague and vagarious power in the Financial Commissioner to fix the days or number of days and hours or number of hours without laying down a•ny guidelines, indicators or controlling poin':s. The State on lhe other hand contended that the subject-n1atter of the legislation being a deleterious sub&tance (liquor), requiring restriction.'i in the direction of moderation in consumption, regulation regarding the days and hours of sale and appropriateness in the matter of location of the places of sale. reasonableness and arbitrariness mu.st be tested on the touchstone of principled pragmatism and living realisn:, Dismissing the writ petitions, HELD: (a) Section 59(f)(v) of the Punjab Excise Act 1914 is valid. [158 CJ • • .. I ' P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, J.) 123 (b) The regulation of the number of days and the duration of the houl3 when supply of alcohol by licensees shall be stopped is quite reasonable whether it be two days in a week or more. [158D] (c) The exercise of the power to regulate, including to direct closure for some days every week, being reasonable and calculated to produce temperan.:e A , "'" and promote social welfare, cannot be invalidated on the imaginary possibility Qf misuse. The test of the reasonableness of a provision is not the theoretical B possibility of tyranny. [158E] -i. (d) There is enough guideline in the scheme and provisions of the Punjab Excise Act to govern the exercise of the power under sections 58 and 59. [ l 58E] ~ (1) (a) The Constitutional test of reasonableness, built into Article 19 aOO -0f arbitrariness implied in Article 14 has a relativist touch. The degree Of C • \ ) constitutional restriction and the strategy of meaningful enforcement will na·turaUy depend on the Third World setting, the ethos of our people, the economic compulsions of today and of human tomorrow. While scanning the rationale <>f an Indian temperance measure it would be useful to remember the univenral evil in alcohol and the particularly pernicious consequences of the drink ~vii in India. SociGtal realities shape social justice. [133H, 134A-B} (b) "\Ve, the people of India" have enacted Article 47 and "we the Justices <>f India" cannot 'lure it back to cancel half a life' or 'wash out a word ot it', especially when progressive implementation of the policy of prohibition is, by Articles 38 and 47, made fundamental to the country's governance. [138HJ (c1 The Constitution is the property of the· people a·nd the courfs know-how is to apply the Constitution not to assess it. In the process of interpretation Part IV of the Constitution mu!lt enter the soul of Part III and the ffiws. (138H, 139AJ Srate of Kf'rala & others v. N. M. Thomas & others [1976] 1 S.C.ll. 906 referred to. (d) Even restrictioru under Article 19 may, depending on situations be pushed to the point of prohibition consistently with reasonableness. While th"ei police power as developed in the American Jurisprudence and Constitutional la·w. may not be applicable in terms to the Indian Constitutional law, there is much that is common between that doctrine and the reasonablen.ess doctrine under Articlt'l 19 of the Indian Constitution. There is also a close similarity in judic1ail thinking on the subject. [148F, G] South Western Law Journal-Annual Survey of Texas Law Vol. 30 No. 1. Survey 1976 pp. 725-26. Ida.ho Law Review Vol. 7 1970 p. 131, Fatehchand Himmat/a/ v. Mahara.>htra [1977] 2 SCR 828 at 839-848 referred to. ( e) The statutory scheme of the Act is not merely fiscal but also dcsignelf to regulate and reduce alcoholic habit. While commodities and situation dictate whether poweri in given statutory provisions, is too plenary to be other than arbitrary or is instinct with inherent limitations, alcohol is so manifestly -deleterious that the nature of the guidelines is written in invisible ink. [l 51 G-Hl D E F G H A B c D E 124 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] 1 S.C.Rc (f) The subject-matter of the legislation is a deleterious substance (alcohol) requiring restrictions in the direction of moderation in consumption, regulation regarding the days and hours of sale and appropriateness in the matter of the location of the places of sale. If it is coc:.·l or mica or cinema, the test of reasonableness will be strict, but if it is an intoxicant or a killer drug or a fire-arm the restrictions must be stem. Just as the difference between bread and brandy is felt in the field of trade control, coal and gold are as apart from whisky and toddy as cabbages are from kings. Life speaks through law. [154D-F] Nashirwar v. M.P. State [1975] 2 SCR 861 at 869-71 referred to. (2) Even if section 59 and Rule 37 were upheld in toto that does not preclude any affected party from challenging a particular executive act pursuant thereto on the ground that such an act is arbitrary, ma4afide or unrele, it is on the cards that the end may be good bnt the means may be bad, constitutionally speaking. And there is a mystique about legalese beyond the layman's ken t .. ,. + " ·.~ P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, J.) 127 To set the record straight, we must state., right here, that no frontid attack is made on the power of the State to regulate any trade (even a trade where the tum-over turns on tempting the customea: to take reeling rolling trips into the realm of thio jocose, belliocose, lachrymore and comatose). Resort was made to a ftanking strategy of anathematising the statutory regulatory power in S. 59(f)v) and its offspring, the amended rule interdicting sales of tipay ecstasy on Tuesdays and Fridays, as too naked, unguided and arcane and, resultantly, too arbitrary and unreasonable to comport with ArtB. 14 and 19. Our response at the first blush was this. Were such a plea valid, what a large communication exists betw.,en lawyer's law and judicial justice on the one hand and life's reality and sobriety on the other, unless there be something occultly unconstitutional in the impugn•-'d Section and Rule below the visibility zone of men of ordinary comprehension. We here recall the principle declared before the American Bar Association by a distinguished Fedo.,ral Judge-William Howard Taft-in 1895 : "If the law is but the essence of common-sense, the protests of many avera~o men may evidence a defect in a legal conclusion though based on the nicest legal reaso'ning and . profoundest learning." The Facts The Punjab Excise Act, 1914, contemplates grant of licences, inter alia, for trading in (Indian) foreign a'nd country liquor. There are various conditions attached to the licences which are of a regulatory and fiscal character. The petitioners are licence-holders and have, on deposit of heavy licence fee, been permitted by the State to vend liquor. The co'nditions of the licences include restrictions of various types, including obligation not to sell on certain days and during certain hours. Under the former rule 37 Tuesday upto 2 p.m. was prohibited for sale; so also the seventh day of the month. The licences were granted subject to rules framed under the Act and Section 59 is o'.ne of the provisions empowering rule-making. Rule 37 was amended by a notification whereby, in the place of Tuesdays upto 2 p.m. plus the 7th day of every month, Tuesdays and Fridays in every week were substituted, as days when liquor wnding was prohibited. Under the modified rules a conseqnential reduction of the licence fee from Rs. 12,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- was also made, probably to compensate for the marginal loss caused by the two-day closure. Aggrieved by this ame'ndment the petitioners moved this A B c D E F G H A B c E F G H 128 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [19791 l s.c.R. Court challenging its vires as well as the coll5titutionality of S. 59(f) (v) which is the source of power to make rule 37. If the Section fails the rule must fall, since the stream cannot rise higher than the source. Various contentions based on Art. 19(g) and (6) and Art. 14 were urged and stay of operation of the new rule was granted by this Court. We will presently examine the tenability of the argum~nt and the alleged vice of the provisions; and in doing so we adopt, as counsel desired, a policy of non-alignment on the morality of drinking since law a:nd morals interact and yet are autonomous; but, equally clearly, we inform ourselves of the plural 'pathology' implicit in untrammelled trading in alcohol. He who would be a sound law}'or, Andrea Alciati, that 16th century Italian humanist. jurist, long ago stressed, should not limit himself to the Jetter of the text or the narrow study of law but should devote himself also to history, sociology, philology, politics, economics, nostics and other allied sciences, if he is to be a jurist priest in the service of justice or legal engineer of social justice.(') This is our perspective because, while the forensic problem is constitutional, the Constitution itself is a human docume.nt. The integral yoga of law and life once underlined, the stage is set to unfold the relevant facts and focus on the precise contentions. Several counsel have made separate submissions but the basic note is the same with minor variations in emphasis. Whv drastically regulate the drink trade ?-the Social rationale-on Brandies brief Anywhere on our human planet the sober imperative of moderating the consumption of inebriating metha'ne substances and manacling liquor business towards that end, will meet wi.th axiomatic acceptance. Medical, criminological and sociological testimony on a cosmic scale bears out the tragic miscellany of traumatic consequences of shattered health and broken homes, of crime escalation with alcohol as the hidden villai"n or aggressively promotional anti-hero, of psychic break-downs, insane cravings and efficiency impairment, of pathetic descent to doom sans sense, sans shame, sans everythini, and host of other disasters individuals, familial, genetic and societal.(') We need not have dilated further on the deleterious impost of unchecked alcohol intake on consumers and communitieG but Shri Mahajan advocated regulation as valid with the cute rider that even (I) Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. I-II p. 618. (2) Ibid p. 619-27. •I .. P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, J.) 129 water intake, if immoderate, may affect health and so regulation of liquor trade may not be valid, if more drastic than for other edibles. The sequitur be argued for was that the two-day ban on liquor licensees was unreasonable under Art. 19(g) read with Art. 19(6). He also branded the power ta restrict the days and hours of sale of liquor without specification of guidelines as arbitrary and scouted the ·snbmission of the Addi. Solicitor General that the noxious nature of alcohol and the notorious fall-out from gentle bibbing at the beginning on to deadly addiction at the end was inherent guideline to salvage the provision from constitutional casualty. Innocently td equate alcohol with acqua is an exercise in intoxication and straining judicial credibility to absurdity. We proceed to explain why alcohol business is dangerous and its very injurious character and mischief potential legitimate active policing of the trade by any welfare State, even absent Art. 47. The alcoholics will chime in with A.E. Houseman(') : "And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man . ....... " But the wisdom of the ages oozes through Thomas Bacon who wrote : "For when the wine is in~ the wit is out." Dr. Walter Reckless, a criminologist of international repute who had worked in India for years has in "The Crime Problem" rightly stressed : (2) "Of all the problems in human society, there is probably none which is as closely related to criminal behaviour as is drunkenness. It is hard to say whether this close relationship is a chemical one, a psychological one, or a situational one. Several different levels of relationship between ingestion .of alcohol and behaviour apparently exist. A recent statement by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency quite succinctly describes the effect of alcohol on behaviour : Alcohol acts as a depressant; it inhibits selfcontrol before it curtails the ability to act; and an individual's personality and related social and cultural factors assert themselves during drunken behaviour .... Although its dangers are not commonly understood or accepted by the public, ethyl alcohol can have perhaps the most serious con- .sequences of any mind-and-body-altering drug. It causes (l) Makers of Modern world by Louis Untermeyer p. 275. (2) The Crime Problem (Fifth Edition) Walter C. Reekie Page 115, 116 & 117. A B c D. E F G H A 130 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] 1 s.c.tt .. addiction in chronic alcoholics, who sufier consequences just as serious, if not more serious than opiate addicts. It is by far the most dangerous and the most widely used of any drug." (emphasis added). The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and AdminislraB tion of Justice made the following pertinent observation : c D E F The figures show that crimes of physical violence are associated with intoxicated persons ..... Thus the closest relationship between intoxication and criminal behaviour (except for public intoxication) has been established for criminal categories involving assaultive behaviour. This relationship is especially high for· lower class Negroes and whites. More than likely, aggression in these groups is weakly controlled and the drinking of alcoholic beverages serves as a triggering mechanism for the external release of aggression. There are certain types of key situations located in lower class life in which alcohol is a major factor in triggering assaultive behaviour. A frequent locale is the lower class travern which is an important s'ocial institution for the class group. Assaultive episodes are triggered during the drinking situation by quarrc'Js that center around defaming personal honor, threats to masculinity, and questions about one's birth legitimacy. Personal quarrels· between husband and wife, especially after the husband's drinking, frequently result in assaultive episodes, in the lowerlower class family.'' The steady llow of drunkenness cases through the hands of the police, into our lower courts. and into our jails and workhouses has been labelled the "revolving" door, because a very large part of this flow of cases consists of chronic drinkers who go through the door and out, time after time. On one occasion when the author was visiting a Saturday morning session of a misdemeanor court, there was a case of an old "bum" who had been in the local workhouse G 285 times previously." An Indian author, Dr. Sethna dealing with society and the criminal, has this to say : (') Many crimes are caused under the influence of alcohol H or drugs. The use of alcohol, in course of time, causes ll great and irresistible craving for it. To retain the so-called (1) Society and the Criminal by M. J. Setbna 3rd Edn. P. 164. .. f '-. P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer,].) 131 'satisfaction', derived from the use of alcohol or drugs, the drunkard or the drug-addict has got to go on increasing the quantities from time to time; such a state of affairs may lead him even to commit thefts or frauds to get the same otherwise. If he gets drunk so heavily that he cannot understand the consequences of his acts he is quite likely to do some harmful act-even an act of homicide. Every often, crimes of violence have been committed in a state of intoxication. Dr. Hearly is of the opinion that complete elimination of alcohol and harmful drug habits would cause a reduction in crime by at least 20 per cent; not only that, but there would also be cumulative effect on the generatiC'nS to come, by diminishing poverty, improving home conditions and habits of living and environment, and perhaps even an improvement in heredity itself. Abstinence campaigns carried out efficiently and in the proper manner show how crime drops. Dr. Hearly cites Baer, who says that Father Mathew's abstinence campaigns in Ireland, during 1837-1842. reduced the use of spirits 50 per cent, and the crimes dropped from 64,520 to 47,027. According to Evangeline Booth, the Commander of the Salvation Army, "In New York before prohibition, the Salvation Army would collect from 1,200 to 1,300 drunkards in a single night and seek to reclaim them. Prohibition immediatelv reduced the gathering to 400 and the proportion of actual drunkards from 95 per cent to less than 20 per cent". And "a decrease of two thirds in the number of derelicts, coupled with a decrease in the number of drunkards almost to the Vanishing point, certainly lightened crime and charity bills. It gave many of the erstwhile drunkards new hope and a new start". So says E. E. Covert, in an interesting article on Prohibition. The ubiquity of alcohol in the United States has led to nationwide sample studies and they make startling disclosures from a criminological angle. For instance, in Washington, D.C. 76.5% of all arrests in 1965 were for drunkenness, disorderly conduct and vagrancy, while 76.7% of the total arrests in Atlanta were for these reasons(') Of the 8 million arrests in 1970 almost one-third of these were alcohol-related. Alcohol is said to affect the lives of 9 million persons (1) Society, Crime and Criminal Careers ry Don C. Gibbon• p. 427-428. c F G H 132 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] l s.c.R. A and to cost 10 billion in lost work time and an additional 15 billion m health and welfare costs."(') c Richard D. Knudten stated "Although more than 35 % of all annual arrests in the United States are for drunkenness, additional persons conunitting more serious crimes while intoxicated are included within the other crime categories like drunken driving, assault, rape and murder. (2 ) President Brezhnev bewailed the social maladies of increasing alcdholism. Nikita KnIBtbchev was unsparing : "Drunks should be 'kicked out of the party' not moved from one responsible post to another."(3 ) Abraham Lincoln, with convictiOlll and felicity said that the use of alcohol beverages had many defenders but no defence and intoned : "Whereas the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage is productive of pauperism, degradation and crime. and D believing it is our duty to discourage that which produces more evil than good, we, therefore, pledge ourselves to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage."(4) E In his famous Washington's birthday address said : "Whether or 1iot the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an open question. Threefourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their lips, and I believe all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts."(') Jack Hobbs, the great cricketer, held : F "The greatest enemy to success on the cricket field is the drinking habit." And Don Bradrnan, than whom few batsmen better wielded the willow, encored and said : "Leave drink alone. Abstinence is the thing that is what made me."(•) (1) Current perspectives on Criminal Behaviour edited by Abrahams. Blumberg P. 23. (2) Crime in a complex Society by Richard D. Knudten P. 138. (3) Report of the study Team on Prohibition VoJ. L. P. 344. (4) Ibid p. 345. (5) Ibid p. 345. (6) Report of the Study Team on Prohibition Vol.). P. 347. .. ( P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, !.) 133 Sir Andrew Clark, in Lachrymal language spun the lesson from hospital beds : '"As I looked at the hospital wards today and saw that seven out of ten owed their diseases to akohol, I could but lament that the teaching about this question was not more direct, more decisive, more home-thrusting than ever it ,had been."( 1) George Bernard Shaw, a provocative teetotaller, used tart words of trite wisdom : "If a natural choice between drunkness and sobriety were pos~ible, I would leave the people free to choose. But then I see an enormous capitalistic organisation pushing drink under people's noses of every comer and pocketing the price while leaving me and others to pay the colossal damages, then I am prepared to smash that organisation and make it as eas'y for a poor man to stay sober, if he wants to, as it is for his dog. Alcohol robs you of that last inch of efficiency that makes the difference between first-rate and second-rate. I don't drink beer-first, because I don't like it; and A. B c D second, because my profession is one that obliges me to E keep in critical training, and beer is fatal both to training and to criticism. Only teetotallers can produce the best and sanest of which they are capable. Drinking is the chloroform that enables the poor to endure the painful operation of living. It is in the last degree disgraceful that a man cannot provide his own genuine courage and high spirits without drink. F I should be utterly ashamed if my soul had shrivelled Ge up to such an extent that I had to go out and drink a whisky.(2) The constitutional test of reasonableness, built into Art. 19 and of arbitrariness implicit in Art. 14, has a relativist touch. We have to view the impact of alcohol and temperance on a given society; and_ H. (1) Ibid P. 347. (2) Report of the study Team on Prohibition Vol. 1 p. 346. A B c D E F 134 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] 1 s.c.R. for us, the degree of constitutional restriction and the strategy of meaningful enforcement will naturally depend on the Third World setting, the ethoo of our people, the economic compulsions of today and of human tomorrow. Societal realities shape social justice. While the universal evil in alcohol has been· indicated the particularly pernicious consequence of the drink evil in India may be useful to remember while scanning the rationale of an Indian temperance measure. Nearly four decades ago, Gandhiji, articulating the inarticulate millions' well-being, wrote : "The most that tea and coffee can do is to cause a little extra expense, but one of the most greatly felt evils of the British Rule is the importation of alcohol ..... that enemy of mankind, that curse of civilisation-in some form or another. The measure of the evil wrought by this borrowed habit will be properly gauged by the reader when he is told that the enemy has spread throughout the length and breadth of India, in spite of the religious prohibition for even the touch of a bottle containing alcohol pollutes the Mohamedan, according to his religion, and the religion of the Hindu strictly prohibits the use of alcohol in any form whatever, and yet alas ! the Government, it seems, instead of stopping, is aiding and abetting the spread of alcohol. The poor there, as everywhere, are the greatest sufferers. It is they who spend what little they earn in buying alcohol instead of buying good food and other necessaries It is that wretched poor man who has to starve his family, who has to break the sacred trust of looking after his children, if any, in order to drink himself into misery and premature death. Here be it said to the credit of Mr. Caine, the ex-Member for Barrow, that, he undaunted, is still carrying on his admirable crusade against the spread of the evil, but what can the energy of one man, however, powerful, do against the inaction of an apathetic and dormant Government."(') Parenthetically speaking, many of these thoughts may well be regarded by Gandhians as an indictment of governmental policy even to-day. The thrust of drink control has to be sudied in a Third World country, developing its; human resources and the haven if offers to the poor, especially their dependents. Gandhiji again : H "For me the drink question is one of dealing with a growing social evil against which the State is bound to (!) The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi pp. 29-30 ( ... .. P. N. KAUSHAL v. UNION (Krishna Iyer, 1.) 135 provide whilst it has got the opportunity. The aim is patent We want to wean the labouring population and the Harijans from the curse. It is a gigantic problem, and the best resources of all social workers, especially women, will be taxed to the utmost before the drink habit goes. The prohibition I have adumbrated is but the beginning (undoubtedly indispensable) of the reform. We cannot reach the drinker so long as he has the drink ship near his door to tempt him."(') Says Dr. Sethna in his book already referred to : "And in India, with the introduction of prohibition we find a good decline in crime. There are, however, some persons who cannot do without liquor. Such persons even go to the extent of making illicit liquor and do not mind drinking harmful rums and spirits. The result is starvation of children at home, assaults and quarrels between husband and wife, between father and child, desertion, and other evils resulting from the abuse of alcohol. The introduction of prohibition in India actually caused a considerable fall in the number of crimes caused by intoxication. Before prohibition one often had to witness the miserable spectacle of poor and ignorant persons-millha11ds. labourers, and even the unemployed with starving families at home-frequenting the pithas (liquor and adulterated toddy shops) drinking burning and harmful spirits, and adulterated toddy, which really had no vitamin B value; these persons spent the little they earned after a hard day's toil, or what little that had remained with them or what they had obtained by some theft, trick, fraud or a borrowing they spent away all that, and then, at home, left wife and children starving and without proper clothes, education. and other elementary necessaries of life."(') (emphasis added) The Labour Welfare Department of the State Governments and of the Municipalities are rendering valuable service, through their labour welfare officers who work at the centres assigned to them, impressing upon the people how the use of alcohol is ruinous and instructing them also how to l;ve hygienically; there are lectures on the evils of drug and drink habits. (1) The Collected Works of ll'ahaima Ganc'h;. Vol. 66 P. 47. (2) Society and the Criminal by M. J. Sethna 3rd Edn. p. 165, 166 & 168-169. A B c D E F G H A B c D E F G H 136 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] l S.C.R. Partial prohibition of hot country liquors was introduced by ihe Congress Ministries in Bombay, Bihar, Madras (in Salem, Chittor, Cuddaph and North Arcot Districts) when ihey first came into power. In C. P. and Berar, prohibition covered approximately one-fourth of the area and population of the State. In Assam, prohibition is directed mainly against opium. In Deccan Hyderabad on 3rd January, 1943, a Firman was issued by his Exalted Highness the Nizam, supporting the temperance movement. Jamgiu and Kashmir came also on the move towards prohibition. Since 1949 State Governments determined the policy of introduction of total prohibition. On April 10, 1948, the Central Advisory Council for Railways, under the Chairmanship of the Hon 'ble Dr. John Matthai, agreed to the proposal to ban the serving of liquor in refreshment rooms at railway stations and dining cars. In Madras, prohibition was inaugurated on 2nd October. 1948, by the Premier, the Hon'ble Mr. 0. P. Ramaswami Reddiar who. pronounced it a red letter day. In 1949, West Punjab took steps for the establishment oE prohibition. In 1949, nearly half the area of the Central Provinces and Berar got dry, and it was proposed to enforce prohibition thrO{lghout the State. In Bombay the Prohibition Bill was passed and became Act . in 1949, and Bombay got dry by April 1950. The number of offences under the Abkari Act is notoriously high. It shows the craving of some persons for liquor in spite of all good efforts of legal prohibition. The remedy lies in making prohibition successful through education (even at the school stage), suggestion re-education. The Tek Chand Committee(') surveyed the civilizations from Babylon through China, Greece, Rome and India. X-rayed the religions of the world and the dharmasastras and concluded from this conspectus that alcoholism was public enemy. Between innocent first sour sip and nocent never-stop alcoholism only time is the thin partition and, inevitability the sure nexus, refined arg>n (I) Report of the Study Team on Prohibition Vol. l P. 345. (2) Ibid P. 344. (3) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 69 P. 83. I0-520SCI/78 A c D G A B c D E F 138 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1979] 1 S.C.R. him m his health, which the habit undermines; in his morals, which \ it weakens; and in the self-abasement which it creates.