New Delhi, May 2: The Supreme Court has called upon the Centre and state governments to consider framing rules to gradually reduce the consumption of liquor to achieve the goal of prohibition under Article 47 of the Constitution.

Referring to the instance of the younger generation getting more and more addicted to alcohol, a bench headed by Justice S.B. Sinha said: “It is a notorious fact, of which we can take judicial notice, that more and more of the younger generation in this country is getting addicted to liquor.

“It has not only become a fashion to consume it (liquor) but it has also become an obsession with very many. Surely, we do not need an indolent nation.”

The bench, which also consisted of Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan, said that Article 47 of the directive principles of state policy “casts a duty on the state to reduce the consumption of liquor gradually leading to prohibition itself”.

The comments came while the apex court set aside an interim order of Bombay High Court that stayed the levy of licence fee on a distillery at Nagpur.

It is difficult to appreciate as to why the state “should encourage, that too practically unrestrictedly, the trade in liquor”, it said.

The only excuse for the state for not following the mandate of the Constitution is that this trade generates huge revenue, which is used to meet the financial needs of the state, the court pointed out.

The right to trade in liquor is only a privilege guaranteed by the state, the bench said.

The apex court noted that the high court was not justified in staying the collection of the levy “which alone appears to be the motive in permitting the trade in liquor, notwithstanding the mandate of Article 47 of the Constitution of India”.

Although courts cannot direct implementation of the directive principles, they can take them into consideration while deciding the constitutional validity of a law.

Last year, a Constitution bench of the apex court headed by the then Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti, upheld the validity of a Gujarat legislation banning cow slaughter.

Article 48 calls upon the government to take steps to prevent slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle.