ARRIVE SAFE SOCIETY OF CHANDIGARH THROUGH ITS PRESIDENT HARMAN SINGH SIDHU Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner-Arrive Safe Society of Chandigarh through its President by way of instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India prays for a direction to the respondents to make a provision in the upcoming Excise Policy for the year 2018-19 regarding issuance of computerized bills at all liquor vends across the States of Haryana and Punjab, prior to the auction of liquor vends for the next financial year.

(2.) A few facts relevant for the decision of the controversy involved as narrated in the petition may be noticed. The Arrive Safe Society is an Indian NGO working on developing road safety programmes to increase knowledge, awareness and skills amongst all types of road users. Besides educating the youth about liquor abuse, it also works closely with the traffic police department to improve the law enforcement regarding drunken driving. On account of constant efforts put in by the petitioner with no private interests, the Supreme Court directed the removal of liquor vends from all National and State Highways in order to curb the menace of free availability of liquor and reduce the number of deaths due to drunken driving. Not only this, the States have been directed to remove all the advertisements in any form regarding sale of liquor from Highways and the authorities have been directed to ensure that the liquor vends are neither visible nor accessible from the Highways. In the year 2015, the petitioner society filed petitions challenging the Excise policies of the States of Haryana and Punjab vide CWP Nos.5249 and 5827 of 2015 which were disposed of vide separate orders. One of the grounds for challenge in those petitions was the issuance of computerised bills across all liquor vends. The petition relating to excise policy for the State of Haryana was disposed of on 1.4.2015 but since the issue regarding issuance of bills was not dealt with in the judgment, a review petition was filed which was also disposed of on 11.5.2015. As regards State of Punjab, the petition was disposed of as infructuous on 5.4.2016. On 28.2.2017, in the present writ petition i.e. CWP No.1343 of 2017, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State of Haryana produced a letter dated 27.2.2017 addressed by the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana to the office of the Advocate General, Haryana wherein it was stated that condition of issuing a receipt by the vendor for every purchase of liquor beyond Rs. 1000/- was being proposed mandatorily and for purchases below that quantum, receipt will be issued wherever the customer so desired. In case a complaint was found true, penalty of Rs. 500/- was proposed to be imposed upon the vendor for every such default. It was thus observed by the Bench that the Council of Ministers, Haryana would take all these factors into consideration before finalising the policy for the next year. On 22.3.2017, it was observed by the Bench that this petition is clearly a Public Interest Litigation and that the right of the individual customer may not be affected on account of the amended policy which makes it mandatory for the vendor to issue a receipt even for a sale of less than Rs. 1000/- if the consumer demands a receipt. According to the petitioner, inspite of there being provision for issuance of bills in the Punjab Liquor Licence Rules, 1956 for Punjab as well as in Excise Policy of State of Haryana for the year 2017-18, the respective State Governments have failed to give tenor to the assurance given to this Court in the year 2017-18. The representations filed by the petitioner have not been responded. Hence the instant petition by the petitioner.

(3.) In the written statement filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 and 2, it has been inter alia stated that as per clause 1.7 of the Excise Policy for the year 2017-18 of the State of Haryana, it is mandatory for all the retail licensees to issue an invoice where the total sale price of liquor exceeds Rs. 1000/- and in case the price is less than Rs. 1000/-, the licensee shall issue an invoice if so demanded by the customer. In case of violation of this provision, a penalty of Rs. 500/- per incident shall be imposed on the licensee after enquiry by the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Excise) concerned. In view of the above provision, any customer can always demand an invoice if he/she so desires and thus, no cause of action is left for the petitioner to pursue the present writ petition. It has been further stated that a writ petition that targets policy of the State is not maintainable unless the policy is shown to be arbitrary or against the provisions of the Constitution. The Excise policy for the year 2017-18 has been framed in exercise of inherent powers under Entry 51 of State List in Schedule VII of the Constitution of India and has been duly approved by the Council of Ministers, Haryana. The e-tendering process has come into operation in accordance with this approved Excise Policy. The matter was considered by the Council of Ministers, Haryana wherein it was observed that the issue of receipt is actually not connected with the possibility of evasion of tax/duty by the vendor since the revenue is recovered through auction/e-tendering and the same is paid by the vendor in the beginning upto a certain extent followed by subsequent payments of entire licence fee in 10 instalments. As such, there should be no presumption that non-issuance of receipt helps the vendor to evade any tax, duty etc. The relevancy drawn by the petitioner that issuing a bill will result into checking of quality of liquor does not seem to be carrying much weight as the sealed liquor bottles pasted with hologram are transported under permit issued by the department and hence chances of adulteration and sale of illicit liquor at retail vends is negligible. Besides, a link between bill of sale and the liquor bottle sold can only be derived if complete details such as batch number and brand etc. are mentioned on the bill which seems to be very difficult at the hands of illiterate/semi literate salesmen during rush hours as most of the sale of liquor takes place in a couple of hours generally in the evening and issue of receipt to each and every customer will take a long time and would lead to a very long queues before the liquor vends which may further lead to disturbance to the public at large. It has further been stated that there is a feeling however in the officers now that the proposal of making the issuance of a receipt for every sale of liquor beyond Rs. 1000/- as mandatory and issue of receipt wherever the customer so desires for sale of liquor upto Rs. 1000/- is a unique order and needs to be watched for its impact in this year. Accordingly, the provision as approved has been incorporated in the Excise Policy for the year 2017-18. Further the State will consider extending the issue of invoice/receipt for every purchase during the policy finalization for the financial year 2018-19 after considering the implementation of this unique step in the Excise Policy for the year 2017-18.