MANIKANDAN Vs. P.PALANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "Liquor causes more evils. It makes many as devils." Easy accessibility and availability of alcohol made by governments is the main reason for increase in crimes in the society. Many precious lives are lost and many people are injured and crippled due to drunken driving. Heinous crimes are committed under intoxication. Health of citizens who are consuming liquor is gradually affected violating fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India making it as a dangerous social problem. Women and children are worst sufferers due to alcohol as men become drunkards and they usually beat them after intoxication.

(2.) About 70 lakh people out of 68 million population of Tamil Nadu consume alcohol every day. 6,500 TASMAC shops cater to the needs of the consumers earning 35 per cent of State's income. Mostly the consumers are invariably labourers, farmers, lower middle and lower strata people. Most of the daily wagers are stated to be spending 50 per cent or more of their earnings on 'Quarter (180 ml)' of liquor driving their families to abject poverty. Women and children need to be protected from domestic violence, sex crimes, poverty, etc. Innumerable families are being shattered because of drinking and drunken driving. Health, wealth and peace are lost due to alcohol and mostly, the sufferers are women and children as they are affected physically, psychologically and economically. More people including juveniles are becoming addicts.

(3.) 3.1 Drinking causes many health hazards apart from causing numerous road accidents and many heinous crimes. Researchers have linked alcohol consumption to more than 60 diseases. "Alcohol does all kinds of things in the body, and we are not fully aware of all its effects. It is a pretty complicate little molecule", says James C. Garbutt, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a researcher at the University's Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. Doctors say that alcohol consumption causes 60 diseases and major among them are cardio-vascular disease, cancer, anaemia, liver cirrhosis, dementia, depression, seizures, gout, high blood pressure, infectious disease, nerve damage, pancreatitis, etc. Hence, people should be discouraged to take alcohol. Many States like Bihar, Nagaland, apart from dry States like Gujarat banned alcohol completely or partially. Mr. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, claimed huge drop in domestic violence and rape cases since alcohol ban was introduced in April 2015 (between April 2015 and April 2016).