Bihar Excise Act | Patna High Court Reduces Penalty From 50% To 30% For Release Of Rental Car Seized With Liquor

The Patna High Court has slashed a 50 percent penalty imposed for releasing a rental car seized with nearly 318 litres of liquor. It ordered that the vehicle be released on payment of 30 percent of its insured value and struck down an additional 3 per cent charge as illegal.

A Division Bench of Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Justice Sourendra Pandey noted that the vehicle owner was not an accused in the case and said the confiscation orders needed correction.

The court observed, “This Court deems it just and proper to modify the order of penalty and direct the Competent Authority to release the vehicle on payment of 30% of the insured value.”

The case relates to a car seized in Darbhanga in December 2024 after police allegedly found it carrying around 317.88 litres of foreign liquor. An FIR was registered under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise law.

The District Magistrate-cum-Collector, Darbhanga had ordered that the vehicle could be released only on payment of 50 percent of its insured value along with an additional 3 percent amount, failing which it was to be confiscated. That order was later upheld by the Excise Commissioner.

Before the High Court, the owner said he was neither driving nor present in the vehicle at the time of seizure and that the car had been rented out through the Zoomcar platform under a vehicle lease agreement. He argued that the penalty was unreasonably high and that there was no provision in law permitting authorities to recover an extra 3 percent over and above the penalty.

The State opposed the plea, pointing to the quantity of liquor involved, but fairly conceded that in similar cases the High Court had limited the penalty to 30 percent of the insured value.

Accepting the challenge to the additional levy, the bench said, “So far as the imposition of 3% over and above the penalty amount is concerned, the same has no sanction of law and is liable to be set aside.”

The court accordingly quashed that part of the order and directed release of the vehicle on payment of 30 per cent of its insured value.

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