Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, “Today the voting age is 18 years. To say that a person above the age of 18 can cast a vote but cannot drink alcohol is to stay away from reality. Just because a person is allowed to drink does not mean that drunk driving is also allowed. There are laws to prevent drunken driving and they are being implemented.
It has been feared in the petition that raising the drinking age from 25 to 21 years may lead to more cases of drunken driving. It also demanded mandatory age checks at places selling and serving liquor, including bars, pubs, liquor shops and any food and beverage outlets.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, argued that this is an attempt to stop this policy with one pretext or the other.
The petitioner claimed that the Delhi government had failed to act on his PIL of 2017 where the court had directed the government to frame a policy of age verification at liquor sales places. He said that age verification should be done through government identity cards like Aadhar card or voter ID card. The bench issued notice to the Delhi government seeking its response on the petition and fixed September 17 as the next date of hearing.