V. D. Misra, C.J.—Every other day the All India Radio quotes the Fathe of the Nation that liquor is poison. It keeps on describing its evils. No oner doubts it. Over the ages all civilizations have unequivocally condemned it. It has broken homes and ruined nations. In this country the evil percolated to the poorest in this century before Independence, Mahatma Gandhi said : "I hold drink to be more damnable than thieving and perhaps even prostitution. Is it not often the parent to both ? I ask you to join the country in sweeping out of existence the drink revenue and abolishing the liquor shops." In deference to these sentiments the framers of our Constitution have tried to root out this evil by enjoining upon the State to bring about prohibition of intoxicating drinks’ This provision has been made in Article 47 of the Constitution in the chapter containing the Directive Principles of the State policy.

2. Sometimes one hears responsible persons of the executive blaming the judiciary for being an obstacle to the enforcement of the Directive Principles enshrined in the Constitution but never have they realised that how the State has consistently gone against the principle of b