The Supreme Court has stated that a complete alcohol ban fails to stop alcoholism or methanol-laced hooch tragedies, pointing to Gujarat’s long-standing prohibition as an example. Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran made the remarks while striking down Maharashtra rules that required colourant and bitterant additives in methanol sold to non-drug users. The court noted that despite prohibition since 1960, Gujarat has experienced at least ten major mass hooch tragedies that have killed over 600 people, noting that total bans push the liquor trade underground and increase lethal, unregulated brews.
While accepting that preventing methanol poisoning is a legitimate public-health goal, the Bench ruled that Maharashtra’s Rules 18A and 18B failed proportionality and missed the real diversion routes identified after the 1991 Mumbai hooch tragedy. Instead, the court urged stronger supervision of methanol stocks, tighter licensing checks, usage reconciliation, dedicated tankers, and tamper-evident seals to address issues like unlicensed channels, transport pilferage, and confusion between ethyl and methyl alcohol.