Why not liquor bottle buy back system be extended throughout Tamil Nadu, asks HC

When the batch of PIL and petitions taken by the court on its own over environmental issues, which affected the forest animals in the hills came up for further hearing today, the bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and N Sathish Kumar issued the direction.Originally, when the matter came up on April 18, the bench had warned the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation TASMAC it would not hesitate to order the closure of all retail liquor shops in the Nilgiris district, if the empty liquor bottle buyback scheme was not implemented.

Wondering as to why the empty liquor bottle buy-back system should not be extended throughout Tamil Nadu, including all hill stations, a special bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to consider the same. When the batch of PIL and petitions taken by the court on its own over environmental issues, which affected the forest animals in the hills came up for further hearing today, the bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and N Sathish Kumar issued the direction.

Originally, when the matter came up on April 18, the bench had warned the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) it would not hesitate to order the closure of all retail liquor shops in the Nilgiris district, if the empty liquor bottle buyback scheme was not implemented. The special bench had taken note of the submission of M Santhanaraman, who had been appointed as an amicus curiae to assist the court, that the forest animals, more particularly the elephants, developed infections due to the injuries sustained after stepping on glass bottles and died within three months.

Five days later, the State government on April 23, permitted TASMAC to charge Rs 10 extra and refund the excess amount collected when the customer returned the bottle without littering them in the forests in the Nilgiris alone.

In his reply, the Additional Advocate-General today informed the bench that the scheme would be implemented in on a trial basis in the Nilgiris alone.

It was at this juncture, the special bench asked the AAG as to why the system should not be extended throughout the State, including all hill stations and posted the matter for further hearing next week.