The Supreme Court has allowed a carton industry body to join a PIL that challenges State excise policies permitting liquor sales in tetra packs, cartons and sachets.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 15) allowed the Action Alliance for Recycling Beverage Cartons (AARC) to intervene in a public interest litigation that questions State excise policies permitting the sale of liquor in cartons and sachets, opening the case to the packaging industry’s side of the debate [In Re: PIL Against Liquor Sales In Cartons And Sachets].
The matter was heard by a bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice R. Mahadevan and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh.
Background
The sale of liquor in tetra packs and sachets has come before the Supreme Court more than once this year. In January 2026, while hearing a trademark dispute between two whisky makers, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi remarked that liquor cartons resembling juice boxes were dangerous because minors could carry them unnoticed, and observed that States appeared to place revenue above public health.
On May 20, 2026, a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi issued notice to the Centre and all States on a PIL filed by an NGO, through Advocate-on-Record Vipin Nair, seeking uniform national guidelines on liquor packaging and a uniform definition of “bottle”. That petition argued that State Excise Acts define containers so widely that liquor can be sold in flasks, pouches, wrappers and small PET bottles, and that these packs often carry fruit names and bright designs but no prominent health warning. The bench had then described the packaging as “very deceptive”.
What the PIL says
The PIL before the bench contends that liquor in cartons and sachets is easy to conceal, and that this packaging facilitates underage consumption and drinking in public places. It targets the State excise policies that allow liquor to be sold in such containers.
AARC’s stand
AARC, which represents carton manufacturers and alcoholic beverage brand owners, has defended the packaging. It argues that cartons help prevent adulteration and the sale of spurious liquor, since a sealed carton is harder to refill or tamper with than a glass bottle.
The industry body has also objected to the timing of the challenge. It submits that liquor has been sold in cartons for 21 years, and that a belated challenge of this kind should not be entertained.
With AARC now on board as an intervener, the bench will hear the manufacturers’ case alongside the petitioner’s public health concerns and the responses of the Centre and the States. Details of the next date of hearing were not available.
The legal question
Liquor is a State subject under Entry 8 of List II of the Seventh Schedule, so each State decides through its own Excise Act and rules how liquor may be packed and sold. The case asks whether the Supreme Court should step in to push for common standards on packaging and health warnings, or whether the matter is best left to State policy. In April 2026, a different bench had declined a PIL against wine in tetra packs in Uttar Pradesh, calling it a policy matter and asking the petitioner to approach the authorities.
Case Title: In Re: PIL Against Liquor Sales In Cartons And Sachets (descriptive title; case number not available)
Bench: Justice Vikram Nath, Justice R. Mahadevan and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, Supreme Court of India
Date of Hearing: October 15, 2026