Bihar govt approves change in prohibition law

The Bihar cabinet approved a change in the prohibition law that will allow the release of vehicles transporting liquor in the dry state on payment of a far lower penalty than that stipulated earlier, an official said.

The authorities can now release vehicles transporting liquor after payment of either 10 per cent of the insured value of the vehicle or Rs 5 lakh after consulting the judicial authorities, Additional Chief Secretary S Siddharth said.

The decision to make the change in the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2022 was taken on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had imposed total prohibition in the state in 2016.

The modified section will be notified soon by the government after completing mandatory formalities, Siddharth said.

At present, the owner of a vehicle seized in Bihar for transporting liquor is required to pay 50 per cent of its insured value for the release with court's permission.

The proposal for the amendment was placed before the cabinet by the Prohibition, Excise and Registration Department.

Siddharth told reporters after the meeting that in certain cases it was found that owners of new vehicles transporting liquor are unable to pay 50 percent of its insured value. Besides, it was also realised that in some cases the vehicle owners were not involved in violation of the prohibition laws.

''The vehicles can only be released after due permission from the competent court. An appeal in this regard will have to be made before the district magistrate concerned,'' he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)