{"id":31322,"date":"2024-10-24T17:43:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T12:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=31322"},"modified":"2024-10-24T17:43:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T12:13:34","slug":"sc-upholds-states-power-to-regulate-industrial-alcohol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/24-10-2024\/sc-upholds-states-power-to-regulate-industrial-alcohol","title":{"rendered":"SC Upholds State&#8217;s Power to Regulate Industrial Alcohol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court (SC) upheld that <strong>States <\/strong>have the <strong>power to tax<\/strong> not just alcoholic beverages, but also<strong> \u2018industrial\u2019 alcohol.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Industrial alcohol is not meant for <strong>human consumption.<\/strong> The key interpretative question before the court was whether <strong>\u201cintoxicating liquor\u201d<\/strong> can be defined to also include <strong>\u201cindustrial alcohol\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And <strong>whether states can regulate it<\/strong> or whether the Centre has exclusive control on the subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dispute<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The dispute arises from two <strong>\u201coverlapping\u201d entries in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution<\/strong>, which lays down the <strong>division of lawmaking powers<\/strong> between the Centre and the states.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Entry 8 of List II (State List)<\/strong> gives states the power to regulate \u201cthe production, manufacture, possession, transport, purchase and sale of intoxicating liquors\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Entry 52 of List I (Union List)<\/strong> allows the Centre to regulate industries as a whole to the extent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Centre argued that it <strong>\u201coccupied the field\u201d<\/strong> when it comes to industrial alcohol, and that <strong>states could not regulate the subject.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>States, on the other hand, argued that <strong>industrial alcohol can be misused to produce consumable alcohol illegally,<\/strong> which required them to enact legislation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Industrial Alcohol<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Industrial alcohol is<strong> impure alcohol<\/strong> that is used as an industrial solvent.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mixing chemicals<\/strong> such as benzene, pyridine, gasoline, etc. in ethanol, which is produced by fermenting grains, fruit, molasses, etc., \u2014 a process that is called <strong>\u2018denaturation<\/strong>\u2019 \u2014 turns it into industrial alcohol.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This makes the alcohol <strong>unfit for human consumption<\/strong>, and significantly lowers its price.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is used to manufacture a <strong>range of products <\/strong>including pharmaceuticals, perfumes, cosmetics, and cleaning liquids.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is sometimes <strong>used to make illicit liquor, cheap and dangerous intoxicants <\/strong>whose consumption poses severe risks, including blindness and death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>SC Ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SC noted that the tax levied on alcohol is a <strong>key component of a state\u2019s revenue<\/strong>, with state governments often adding an additional excise duty on alcohol consumption to further drive up incomes.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The verdict also provides <strong>clarity on Centre-state relations<\/strong> when it comes to control over industries.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It <strong>affirms the power of states<\/strong> to pass laws on subjects in the State List, even in the <strong>face of the wide powers granted to the Centre <\/strong>regarding the control of \u2018Industries\u2019 as a whole.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The ruling also set aside the<strong> SC\u2019s 1990 judgment <\/strong>in Synthetics &amp; Chemicals Ltd. v State of Uttar Pradesh, which held that <strong>\u201cintoxicating liquor\u201d refers only to potable alcohol<\/strong> and, therefore, states could not tax industrial alcohol.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The SC also held that \u201cwhen there are two possible interpretations of the entries, the <strong>Court must choose the one that maintains the federal balance<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Seventh Schedule<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Article 246<\/strong> of Indian Constitution plays a crucial role in defining the <strong>distribution of powers<\/strong> between the Union government and the State governments.<br>&#8211; It prevents <strong>overlapping or conflicting legislation.<\/strong><br><strong>Three Lists:<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Union List:<\/strong> Contains subjects on which only the Parliament can legislate. Examples include defense, foreign affairs, and atomic energy.<br>&#8211; <strong>State List: <\/strong>Contains subjects on which only the State Legislatures can legislate. Examples include police, public health, and agriculture.<br>&#8211; <strong>Concurrent List: <\/strong>Contains subjects on which both the Parliament and the State Legislatures can legislate. In case of a conflict, the <strong>Union law prevails.<\/strong> Examples include education, marriage, and bankruptcy.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/supreme-court-verdict-on-centre-states-tussle-over-industrial-alcohol\/article68785881.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court (SC) upheld that States have the power to tax not just alcoholic beverages, but also \u2018industrial\u2019 alcohol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31323,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322\/revisions\/31323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}