SC notice to Centre on underage drinking

Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a PIL seeking mandatory age check of buyers at all liquor selling outlets, including hotels, clubs and bars to curb underage drinking and issued notice to Centre.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan sought response from Centre on a plea filed by an organisation “Community Against Drunken Driving” who approached the court through advocate Vipin Naiyar seeking its intervention to stop minors from getting access to alcohol. Though the petitioner impleaded all the states in petition. the bench refrained from issuing notices to states and only sought response from Centre.

The petitioner said various studies carried out by it revealed that liquor vends do not maintain records of people consuming or buying alcohol, and no valid govt age and ID proof is ever checked at time of or before the sale of alcohol is made to a person. “The consequence is that the young people who have not attained the legal drinking age are being, illegally, served alcohol,” the petition stated.