If you are a married woman, you can be prosecuted if your husband has secretly consumed or stored alcohol in house. While this may sound draconian, Bihar Prohibition and Excise Bill, 2016 prescribes exactly this. The bill mandates that all adult members of a family should be considered to be aware of the offense if alcohol is “consumed, manufactured, sold or distributed” on their premises. There are several other provisions which may be considered bizarre by people living outside the state. For example, the Bill, which will be introduced in the state Assembly in the ongoing monsoon session on Monday, prescribes collective fine on a town/village or community if there are habitual offenders of prohibition there. Though this has been provisioned to engage the community to ensure prohibition, the chances of misuse of such law seems more than its success.
Reportedly, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has denied being aware of such provisions in the bill. But he certainly wants Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to reconsider the provisions of the Bill, including the one that calls for a ban on toddy. A large number of people, mostly poor, were earlier engaged in the production and sale of toddy. Ever since prohibition was imposed they have been rendered unemployed. The Bill has been prepared to make the existing law for stringent. However, the contentious provisions have set resentment against the Bill itself among several leaders, including Bihar Excise Minister Abdul Zalil Mastan, who has admitted to media that some of provisions of the bill are wrong.
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The new excise policy passed by the Bihar government had banned consumption and sale of liquor in the state. However, the policy had certain lacunae which the government now wants to replace.