SC scrutinises deceptive tetra pack alcohol packaging

The Supreme Court of India has stepped in to examine the contentious issue of alcoholic beverages being retailed in portable and compact packaging formats. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, issued notices to the Central Government, all State Excise Departments, and manufacturers, including Globus Spirits and Wave Distilleries and Breweries. 

The apex court’s move follows a public interest litigation (PIL) that challenges the legality and safety of selling hard spirits in alternative formats.  

According to leading business sources, the judicial intervention responds to a petition filed by the non-governmental organisation Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD). The petitioner argued that a growing volume of cheap alcohol is entering the domestic market packaged in tetra packs, flexible plastic sachets, and small polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. 

Business sources reported that during the court proceedings, the bench orally characterised this trend as “very deceptive,” acknowledging that compact containers could easily be mistaken for standard, non-alcoholic fruit juice boxes or soft drinks.  

The core of the legal challenge rests on marketing and consumer safety. Advocates representing the petitioner highlighted that, unlike tobacco products, which are strictly mandated to feature prominent graphical health warnings, these portable alcohol packs frequently feature bright colours and vivid imagery of fruits like apples and mangoes. 

Products marketed under commercial labels such as Bunty Premium Vodka, Chelli Mango Vodka, and Premium Romanov Vodka – Apple Thrill were cited by leading business sources as prominent examples of design strategies that allegedly obscure the intoxicating nature of the underlying product, thereby circumventing administrative scrutiny and potentially targeting younger demographics.  

Public health and law enforcement liabilities form another major layer of the dispute. Leading business sources indicate that the unbreakable, highly concealable, and lightweight composition of plastic sachets and tetra packs makes them resilient to breakage and exceptionally easy to hide. The petition argues that this structural convenience directly encourages illegal public consumption in areas like parks and educational zones, facilitates drinking in moving vehicles, and simplifies the illicit cross-border smuggling of liquor between states with varying tax regimes. 

Furthermore, because these materials are cheaper to manufacture than traditional glass packaging, they lower the entry retail price of alcohol, compounding the risk of adolescent access and subsequent drunk driving incidents.  

The litigation also points toward a regulatory gap within regional administrative frameworks. In India, the liquor trade and the process of bottling fall under the jurisdiction of the independent State Excise Acts. 

Business sources have noted that current state-level definitions of what constitutes a bottle are broad and fragmented, with some state laws interpreting the term to include everything from pouches and wrappers to synthetic sacks. 

The petition alleges that state authorities have historically exercised wide, unguided statutory discretion to approve unconventional packaging to maximise fiscal revenue, often ignoring broader public health and municipal recycling constraints.  

The petitioner is seeking a directive from the Supreme Court to mandate a uniform national policy. The proposed guidelines aim to standardise the legal definition of bottling across all states and Union Territories, limiting the packaging of alcoholic beverages exclusively to glass containers or distinct, heavy-duty receptacles that cannot be easily conflated with everyday consumer beverages. 

The Supreme Court has granted the responding administrative departments and manufacturing entities a period of four weeks to submit their formal replies, with the next high-profile hearing scheduled for 10 August 2026.