Government tells Supreme Court: within our jurisdiction to control industrial alcohol

The Union Government asserted its authority to manage industrial alcohol by telling the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 was enacted in the “public interest” and that the authors of the Constitution intended for the Center to have total control over all industries.

In an appearance on behalf of the Center, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that the Act mandated the centralization of the development and regulation of several significant industries whose operations had an impact on the nation as a whole.

The law officer used the example of COVID to illustrate how the government may use its regulatory authority to safeguard the public interest, just as it had done during the epidemic, by issuing directives to guarantee the supply of ethanol at a predetermined price for the production of hand sanitizers. “The government can use its regulatory power if the Center then requires that entire quantity of industrial alcohol for use in making sanitizers,” Mehta said.