Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said enactment of Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, in consonance with regulating Entry 52 of List I of Seventh Schedule, occupied the regulating field for production and distribution of industrial alcohol, over which Centre alone had jurisdiction, while Entry 8 of List II gave states jurisdiction over liquor for human consumption. Fighting Covid pandemic would have been a difficult exercise without IDRA, he said.
While going through IDR Act, a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud, and Justices Hrishikesh Roy, A S Oka, B V Nagarathna, J B Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Ujjal Bhuyan, S C Sharma and Augustine G Masih frowned at the “draconian nature” of the legislation and said it is not only regressive but reminder of ‘licence raj’ that prevailed in India prior to 1990s.
Mehta gave a three-fold answer: one, validity of IDR Act is not in challenge before the court; second, the provisions are there but mostly not resorted to as India, since 1991, is moving towards open market economic policy that had ended licence raj; and third, it is part of global trend of regulating by forbearance, that is though Centre has power, it is not exercising it as long as fruits of economy are equitably distributed and industrial scenario remains robust.
“Union has the power to regulate (all kinds of industries) but by a conscious economic policy call it is not resorting to this. When things are hunky dory, Centre does not intervene. But when exigencies like Covid arise, it would assume regulatory power,” SG said.
He said during Covid, Union govt stepped in to regulate sugarcane, a state subject, and diverted it for production of industrial alcohol, which in turn was diverted for manufacturing hand sanitisers. Union also closed steel plants and diverted their oxygen production to hospitals to meet requirements of Covid patients, Mehta said CJI was aware of the situation then, when he headed a bench that monitored how Centre was rushing oxygen supplies to hospitals across the country.
Underlining need for Union control over non-potable ethyl alcohol, Mehta said this is a vital component in varied manufacturing activities – pharmaceutical, drug, rubber, petroleum, as an anti-freeze material in automobile radiator and used in preparation of ether, chloroform, iodoform, acetaldehyde, acetic acid etc.