Thread by @barandbench

#GujaratHighCourt continues hearing plea challenging #prohibition on manufacture, sale and consumption of #liquor in the State under the Gujarat Prohibition Act.

Hearing before Bench of CJ Vikram Nath & Justice Biren Vaishnav.

AG Kamal Trivedi begins submissions.

AG Kamal Trivedi: It is not permissible for this Court to adjudicate on a matter already decided by the Supreme Court.

#GujaratHighCourt

AG Kamal Trivedi: I agree with Mr. Joshi, the #Contitution is a live document but for this the Petitioners may be relegated to the #SupremeCourt.

AG: A right to eat non-veg within the confines of your own home cannot be equated with drinking intoxicating liquor injurious to health.

Tomorrow someone will argue that I can take psychotropic substances within my four walls.

#GujaratProhibition

AG: Article 21 exempts procedure established by law. If you want to get a law corrected in light of recent judgements by the #SupremeCourt then the challenge may be taken to the Apex Court.

AG: #RighttoPrivacy is not like a "bull in a China Shop"

AG: Reading a judgement requires discipline. One cannot pick parts of the judgement out of context. In #Balsara, the Court held the entire law valid.

#GujaratHighCourt #Prohibition

Sr. Adv Mihir Thakore: The #BombayHighCourt only held portions of Section 12 & 13 valid. Not as a whole.

AG: The Supreme Court in #Balsara upheld the Act calling the restrictions reasonable in nature.

#GujaratHighCourt

AG: Will Supreme Court accept classification if it was violative of the #Constitution as it existed at the time?

#GujaratHighCourt

AG Kamal Trivedi discusses #Balsara judgement by the Supreme Court contrasting submissions made by Petitioners yesterday.

AG: Some people may like to smile at his but I am very srious.

AG Kamal Trivedi discusses #Balsara judgement by the Supreme Court contrasting submissions made by Petitioners yesterday.

AG: Some people may like to smile at this but I am very serious.

AG: Ultimately, the final order of the Supreme Court held only selective provisions to be invalid.

Sections 12 & 13 were only invalid to the extent of their interpretation, otherwise they have been upheld.

#GujaratHighCourt #Prohibition

AG quotes the order of the #SupremeCourt in #Balsara that read,

"I hold that rest of the provisions are valid and my holding invalidty of certain provisions of the Act do not affect validity of the whole Act."

AG: All I want to say is that today in no manner a law can be encated to prohibit the manufacture & use of toilet & medicinal consumption.

Otherwise, Sections 12 & 13 have been upheld along with rest of the provisions of the Act.

AG: I pose a question to myself, one should read a judgement as a whole, one should not clinically read, while arguing that only ratio decidendi is to be read.

#GujaratHighCourt

AG: Wherever changes have been effected in the Act, they are cosmetic in nature. The substance of the Act is preserved.

AG brings on record a comparitive chart.

AG begins arguments on Article 21 and Right to Privacy, Court interrupts and asks him to stick to arguments regarding preliminary objections and not merits.

Advocate Prakash Jani argues in support of the Act.

Jani: Except Section 136 that was declared unconstitutional, all provisions contained in the year 1949 remain intact.

Jani: None of the judgements in #Puttuswamy or others quashes the decision in this decision.

Those working for disadvantaged know the importance of #Prohibition. It is for this reason that Gujarat ranks highest in per capita income.

#GujaratHighCourt

Jani: Substantially every provision has been held valid. The entire Act sorrounds around Sections 12 & 13 that have been upheld.

The entire State is very happy with #Prohibition

#GujaratHighCourt

AG Kamal Trivedi raises his hand. Brings on record Statement of Reasons from the 2016 Amendment of the Act.

#GujaratHighCourt

Advocate Devan Parikh for Petitioners: I need to go to the Supreme Court if what we are asking you is in the nature of a review of a judgement by the Apex Court.

However, there is no ratio decidendi or precedence on what we are arguing.

#GujaratHighCourt

Senior Advocate Mihir Joshi: One of our contentions is that a new Right under the generic umbrella of Article 21 has been conferred on the citizen by way of #Puttuswamy etc.

Joshi: A right conferred in 2017 cannot be answered in the negative in a judgement in 1951.

#GujaratHighCourt

Joshi: Constitutional Rights, Right to Privacy are not issues where the State should insist that it goes out at the threshold.

#GujaratHighCourt

Advocate Percy Kavina: This is the first Constitutional Court of our State.

The relaince being placed on judgements more than half a century old must always give way to a new look at the matter, otherwise #Constitutional progress will never take place.

Court reserves order.

#GujaratHighCourt

Right to Privacy is not like a bull in a china shop, AG says as Gujarat HC reserves orders on maintainability of pleas against Prohibition Act

report by @SuryamShagun

#GujaratHighCourt #LiquorBan

Read more: bityl.co/7Tsv