Can a licence for the sale of liquor be issued for premises visible from or directly accessible from a National or State Highway?

Paragraph 12At this point, it is necessary to refer to the Judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of State of TamilNadu & ors. -vs- K.Balu & another reported in (2017) 6 SCC 715. The relevant portion of the said Judgement is extracted hereunder: ''25. After considering the submissions which have been urged before this Court, we are of the view that there are three areas where the rigours of the directions which have been issued by this Court may require to be suitably modulated without affecting the basic principle underlying the judgment. The first is in relation to limits of local bodies with a population of less than 20,000 people. In such areas, it has been urged before this Court that a State highway is the main thorough fare area along which the township has developed in small clusters of 20,000 or less. Hence, the requirement of maintaining a distance of 500 meter from the outer edge of the highway or service lane may result in a situation where the entire local area may fall within the prohibited distance. We find some substance in the submission. We must emphatically clarify that even in such areas falling under local bodies with a population of less than 20,000, no license for the sale of liquor should be issued along either a National or State Highway or a service lane along the highway. Similarly, the sale of liquor should be from a point which is neither visible from a National or State highway or which is directly accessible from a National or State highway. However, in such a situation, the prohibited distance should in our view be restricted to 220 meter from the outer edge of the National or State highway or of a service lane along the highway. We accordingly direct that the following paragraph shall be inserted, after direction (v) contained in para 29.5 of the operative directions of this court in the judgment dated 15.12.2016 namely : '' In the case of areas comprised in local bodies with a population of 20,000 people or less, the distance of 500m shall stand reduced to 220m.''" [Emphasis supplied by this Court] 12.1. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has emphasised that no liquor shop must be situate facing or directly accessible from the Highways at all. It has further observed that in case of liquor shops situate in local body's jurisdiction, they must be at least 220 meters away from the Highways.