Three residents of Gandhinagar, the capital of “dry” Gujarfat have filed a petition before the Gujarat High Court challenging the state’s prohibition laws saying that they  have the right to consume liquor within the four walls of a house under the ‘Right to Privacy’ recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

The petitioners, Rajiv Piyush Patel, Milind Damodar Nene and Niharika Abhay Joshi, have filed the plea through their advocate Swati Soparkar before the court of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi. The petitioners claim they are not challenging prohibition per se but only the part that bans consuming liquor sitting at home or at private places.Exactly twpo months ago, on August 24, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court had held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.The dignity of the individual, equality between human beings and the quest for liberty are the foundational pillars of the Indian Constitution,” the court had ruled.

Last year the state government had introduced stricter prohibition law and earmarked up to 10 years in jail for manufacture, purchase, sale and transportation of liquor. It was implemented after the Gujarat Prohibition (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was cleared by the state assembly in February 2017. According to the prohibition law, a person is liable to prosecution in case of being found having liquor even in a house or at private places.The police have lodged numerous cases against individuals caught having booze at parties at their houses, farm houses or at other private properties.

Last year, the HC had observed that Gujarat’s prohibition policy has not yielded “positive results”, saying it is not effective or something is wrong with the implementation of the law. The Gujarat High Court made the observation while suggesting to the Centre that it is “high time” it considers denotifying the Union Territory (UT) of Daman and merging it with Gujarat for effective implementation of the Prohibition Act. Gujarat has remained a dry state since 1960.