{"id":118211,"date":"2017-04-01T12:10:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T06:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=118211"},"modified":"2017-04-15T07:20:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T01:50:37","slug":"highway-liquor-sale-ban-the-500-metre-distance-direction-issued-on-15-12-2016-modified-for-areas-with-less-population-and-hilly-terrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2017\/04\/01\/highway-liquor-sale-ban-the-500-metre-distance-direction-issued-on-15-12-2016-modified-for-areas-with-less-population-and-hilly-terrain\/","title":{"rendered":"Highway Liquor Sale Ban: The \u2018500 metre distance\u2019 direction issued on 15.12.2016 modified for areas with less population and hilly terrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court<\/strong>: Showing concern over the presence of liquor vends on national and state highways across the country, the 3-judge bench of J.S. Khehar, CJ and Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and L. NAgeswara Rao, JJ said that where a balance has to be drawn between protection of public health and safety and the need to protect road users from the menace of drunken driving and the trade in liquor, the interests of the latter must be subordinate to the former as drunken driving is a potent source of fatalities and injuries in road accidents.<\/p>\n

Stating that a distance of 100 metres with reference to the highway is not adequate to ensure that users of the highway do not seek access to the sale of liquor in close proximity to the highway, the Court had, on 15.12.2016,<\/a> directed that the liquor vends are not visible or directly accessible from the highway within the stipulated distance of 500 metres from the outer edge of the highway or the service lane. However, the Court laid down additional directions in respect of the following different areas where the blanket rule of \u2018500 metres distance\u2019 was not possible to be made applicable:<\/p>\n