On Friday, the High Court of Delhi refused to issue notice & adjourned the matter while hearing a PIL seeking direction to the Delhi Govt to prohibit/control the production, distribution & consumption of intoxicating drinks and drugs, which are injurious to health, in order to secure the right to health, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
On Friday, the Bench of Justice DN Patel & Justice Neena Bansal Krishna refused to issue a notice in the matter "at this stage" & also asked the other side to accumulate all the Public Interest Litigation s filed by Lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
Justice DN Patel said, "We are adjourning the matter for July 4. Counsel for other side, keep accumulating all the petitions filed by him, we will see what is to be done on next date. Daily you are filing petitions. How many petitions you have got typed, in your drawer & in printing, etc?"
Upadhyay sought direction to the Govt to publish health warnings on liquor bottles & packages, like health warning signs used on cigarette packets, & advertise 'Health & Environment Hazard' of intoxicating drinks through electronic, print & social media in order to secure citizen's right to know, right to information & right to health, guaranteed under Article 21.
The petitioner further sought the issuance of direction to the Government to carry out Health Impact Assessment & Environment Impact Assessment of production distribution & consumption of intoxicating drinks and drugs in the spirit of Articles 21 & 47.
The plea further said that Delhi has a total of 280 municipal wards & until 2015, there were only 250 liquor shops, that is, on average, one liquor shop in every ward & 30 wards without liquor shop. But now State is planning to open three liquor shops in every ward, which is not only arbitrary & irrational but also offends rule of law & right to health guaranteed under Articles 14 & 21 of the Constitution. Article 47 is nevertheless fundamental in the governance & the State is obligated to prohibit the consumption of liquor & drugs but rather than advertising about health hazards of intoxicating drinks and drugs, the State is promoting liquor consumption, alleged petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
The petition further stated that drinking is ten times more dangerous than smoking but health warning is not used on liquor bottles. All alcohol bottles must carry health warnings like cigarette packets. These statutory warnings on labels must include requests to consumers to not consume alcohol and drive & outline how alcohol consumption is harmful for health, the plea added.
Apart from the warning, the specific labelling requirements also need a declaration about alcohol content, allergen warning, no nutritional data, no health claim, restriction on words such as "non-intoxicating" or words implying similar meaning on the label of beverage containing more than o.so/o alcohol by volume. But it has been more than 3 years since the regulation came up for all manufacturers to comply with, still there is no sign of strict & sincere compliance with it. No health warning or proper display of liquor contents has been complied with. FSSAI has proved to be completely incompetent, plea said.
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