SAMUDRA RESTUARANT Vs. DEPUTY EXCISE COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As is often stated, extraordinary circumstances sometimes require extraordinary solutions. The horrendous rise in road accidents in India, particularly in highways, on account of the drivers being inebriated by consumption of alcohol, forced the Honb'le Supreme Court to take notice and prescribe extraordinary directions to curb, what has now come to be called 'drunken driving'.

(2.) The Hon'ble Supreme Court saw that the availability of liquor vending shops on National/ State Highways across the country was the most proximate reason for the rise in accidents caused by the drunk drivers and therefore, the Hon'ble Court though it idoneous to issue orders ensuring that such source and availability of liquor was immediately eliminated from the proximity and adjacency of the National/State Highways.

(3.) The Hon'ble Supreme Court in its seminal judgment in State of Tamil Nadu v. V.K.Balu,2017 1 KHC 26 issued the directions as under: