NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court allowed states to tax and regulate industrial alcohol in a major verdict pronounced on Wednesday. A large constitution bench presided over by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud issued the judgment, expected to benefit Kerala. Eight members of the nine-member bench took the same stand, while Justice B V Nagarathna dissented.

The term ‘intoxicating liquors’ (alcohol for human consumption) is included under Entry 8 of List II (state list) as the eighth entry in the State List. This also includes ‘industrial alcohol’. Therefore, the court held that states can impose tax on this too. The court rejected the central government's contention that only alcohol consumed by humans comes under the definition of intoxicating liquor.

Apart from CJI, Justices Hrishikesh Roy, Abhay S Oka, JB Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Ujjal Bhuyan, Satish Chandra Sharma and Augustine George Masih took the same stand.

Justice BV Nagarathna held that industrial alcohol is something not consumed by humans. He said it was etched in the Constitution and dissented when it came to misinterpreting the same.

The 1989 judgment of a seven-judge bench in the case between Synthetic and Chemicals Ltd. and the Government of Uttar Pradesh was overturned.