The Rajasthan Public Works Department is mulling the de-notification of state highways to urban highways to shield itself from the Supreme Court's direction to ban sale of liquor at national and state highways.


The apex court in its December 15, 2016 order had ruled that licenses of existing shops along national and state highways will not be renewed after March 31.


Rajasthan, which depends heavily on tourism, is set to de-notify sections of highways passing through populated areas as urban roads if they are connected by a bypass. The move will make stretches of highways immune to the court order banning liquor shops within a range of 500 meters from highways.


Around 2800 liquor shops situated near the national and state highways in Rajasthan will be affected by the Supreme Court order banning sale of liquor within 500 metres of the highways.

Out of 7,760 liquor shops, which were given licence in the financial year 2016-17,2,800 fell within the 500 metres radius from highways, thus came under the Supreme Court order.

The revenue collection target for the financial year 2016-17 was Rs 7,300 crore. The department had collected Rs 6,712 crore against the target of Rs 6,300 crore in the fiscal 2015-16.

The ruling has been challenged by several associations across states seeking modification of the judgment.

On 23 March, the Tamil Nadu government had also moved the top court to extend the time for relocation of retail liquor shops along the highways till the expiry of their license period up to 28 November, 2017.


However, the apex court on Friday granted partial relief to state liquor associations regarding banning of liquor stores on state and national highways.


Hearing a batch of petitions seeking modification of its December 2016 order banning liquor outlets within 500 metres of state and national highways across the country, the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Khehar said that in those areas where population was less than 20,000, the distance would be around 220 meters.


Several states, including Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana and Haryana and various others had told the apex court that 500-metre distance is much higher and should be reduced.


Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi, also agreed with the associations and said that the 500-metre distance should be reduced. The apex court, however, observed that life is more important than liquor.


File pic: Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia.