To catch a tippler amendments won’t solve the administrative and judicial mess bihar’s prohibition has created

To catch a tippler amendments won’t solve the administrative and judicial mess bihar’s prohibition has created

Nitish Kumar’s ill-advised 2016 Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act is predictably creating trouble for the administration. Thousands have been arrested for drinking and then jailed. Police records indicate 3.8 lakh cases and 4 lakh arrests under the law and 20,000 bail pleas pending disposal in Patna high court and trial courts. So, the judiciary is also dealing with repercussions of a bad law. Reportedly, 16 of Patna HC’s 25 judges – that HC is already hampered by 28 vacancies – are caught up in hearing bail petitions moved by prohibition violators.

With Supreme Court on Tuesday threatening to release all arrested on bail, weeks after CJI NV Ramana criticised the law’s design, a chastened Bihar cabinet has approved amendments that will let off first-time drinkers with a ‘reasonable’ penalty and will confiscate liquor suppliers’ property. These changes may not solve the problem. The original 2016 Act punished drinkers with 5-7 year jail terms and Rs 1-10 lakh fines. Facing flak, a 2018 amendment imposed fines not less than Rs 50,000 or 3-months imprisonment for first-time offenders and jail terms of 1-5 years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh for repeat offenders. Bihar’s annual per capita income is Rs 46,000. So new penalties will have to lower by an order of magnitude if jailing is to be avoided. But if penalties are very small, disincentive against breaking the law will be very small, too. That’s the problem with bad laws like prohibition – there’s no way out of a mess. As for confiscation of property of liquor suppliers, under prohibition, supply typically happens via gangs, not individuals. So, it’s likely a frontman will get penalised while the big guys walk away.

Thoughtless application of laws, even when those laws are good, can also jam up the system. NCRB found that 16 lakh (25%) of 66 lakh cognisable offences filed in 2020 were violations of Covid social-distancing norms. Energy spent on tackling these misdemeanours detracts from prosecuting pending heinous offences. For all the rhetoric on being truly tough on major crime, the political obsession with policing behaviour and individual preferences is making a creaky justice system worse.