C.A. No. 151/2007

STATE OF U.P. . VS M/S. LALTA PRASAD VAISH AND SONS

The Nine-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court by an 8:1 majority upheld a State Legislature’s power to regulate industrial alcohol and overruled the judgement in Synthetics. Chief Justice Chandrachud authored the majority opinion on behalf of Justice Roy, Justice Oka, Justice Pardiwala, Justice Misra, Justice Bhuyan, Justice Sharma and Justice Masih while Justice Nagarathna authored a dissenting opinion.The majority held that the expression “intoxicating liquors” under Entry 8 of the State List was inclusive of all kinds of alcohol which are detrimental to health. This includes denatured spirits used as raw materials to produce potable alcohol. Thus, the IDRA must be interpreted as excluding “intoxicating liquors” as interpreted in this judgment. Given the finding that industrial alcohol fell under Entry 8 of the State List, the majority held it was not necessary to decide whether orders under Section 18G of the IDRA excluded states’ power to regulate products under Entry 33 of the Concurrent List.Justice Nagarathna, in her dissenting opinion, held that ‘industrial alcohol’ is distinct from “intoxicating liquors” asserting that while States have the authority to regulate ‘intoxicating liquor’ intended for human consumption, they lack the legislative competence to legislate ‘industrial alcohol’ because of Entry 52 of List I of the Seventh Schedule (industries which the Union Government controls in the public interest) and the statutory framework of the IDRA.