Case Law Analysis
|Supreme Court of India
Maharashtra Poisons Rules 18A & 18B struck down as arbitrary | Challenge to methanol poison rules under Arts 14 & 19(1)(g) : SC
The Supreme Court held that Maharashtra Poisons Rules 18A and 18B, which mandated denaturing methanol to curb hooch tragedies, lack a proximate nexus to the objective and impose a disproportionate burden on industries, thus violating Articles 14 and 19(1)(g). The ruling protects chemical manufacturers and traders from arbitrary state regulation while affirming the proportionality test in economic legislation.