This piece of litigation could change life in the defence and paramilitary forces to a great extent.

IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and social activist Nutan Thakur have filed a PIL in Allahabad high court, Lucknow bench, against the supply of heavily subsidised alcoholic drinks in defence and paramilitary forces like BSF, CRPF and ITBP.

The petitioners say that while they welcome the provision of subsidised food items, household goods, etc to these people, because of their special service conditions and their service to the nation, they strongly oppose the grant of subsidised liquor at the cost of the public exchequer because it hardly seems to be based on any functional requirement and also has detrimental effect on them, other than the misuse of the public money.

The petitioners have also questioned the rank-based grant of liquor where in defence forces, the subordinate staff are given four bottles per month while senior officers get 10 and 14 bottles depending on their rank. They say that this discriminatory grant of liquor makes it very clear that it is not based on any functional utility but is an additional unwarranted perk.

Hence, they have prayed for getting the entire matter studied afresh by a high-level committee including renowned social activists, and to stop the provision of cheap liquor as per the findings of this study.

The petitioners contend that the present system of providing highly subsidised alcoholic drinks to the defence and paramilitary force personnel is not only draining the public exchequer “in an unwarranted manner in a completely unproductive and counter-productive activity which could have been used for many other much needed purposes”.

The PIL states that India must be one of the few countries in the world to have a liquor quota for its officers and soldiers. “The genesis of this quota is from the days of the British Raj when the British officer serving in India away from home was given a certain amount of alcoholic drinks free at subsidised cost... after India became free the Government of India decided to continue with liquor quota for the officers and soldiers,” the petitioners submit.