3 min readSrinagarMar 31, 2026 04:40 PM IST
The religious leadership of Kashmir, through its umbrella group, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), has lashed out at the “reckless statement” by National Conference MLA and former Justice of the J&K High Court, Hasnain Masoodi, on a potential liquor ban in the region. On Monday, Mastoid had told reporters outside the Assembly in Jammu that while he supports a liquor ban, “it would affect the revenue of the state government”. Stressing the examples of Bihar and Gujarat, he questioned whether a complete ban would encourage “smuggling and spurious liquor”.
A statement from the MMU said that such remarks are “deeply unfortunate when there are clear Islamic prohibitions on intoxicants, and it is fundamentally at odds with the values and beliefs of Islam”.
The MMU emphasised that the statement ignores the grave social consequences that liquor consumption has in general on families and society, including “domestic distress, financial hardship and moral degradation”.
The issue of a liquor ban has been in conversation in Kashmir for over a year. It also came up in the last session of the J&K Assembly. Members from the ruling National Conference and the opposition PDP had brought Private Members’ Bills seeking a ban on liquor in J&K. This was exacerbated by videos surfacing online of tourists openly consuming liquor in Gulmarg and in shikaras on the Dal Lake.
While the sale and consumption of liquor is not banned in J&K, its public consumption has always been frowned upon. Under Section 510 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) — the criminal code that was in place in J&K before the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 — “misconduct in public by a drunken person” was a punishable offence.
Liquor sales saw a rise from Rs 1,353 crore in 2020 to Rs 2,486 crore in 2024, adding substantially to J&K’s coffers. In March last year, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had dismissed speculation regarding the opening of new liquor stores in the UT. The government issued a clarification that, as per the J&K Excise Policy for the year 2025-26, 305 vends (wine shops) were put to e-auction, and after the culmination of the bidding process, 271 vends were allotted through the e-auction process (conducted by J&K Bank) to the successful bidders.
Around the same time, Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had criticised efforts to justify continuing liquor sales, specifically in the Valley.
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On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the MMU added that justifications coming from a political party that claims to uphold the ethos, culture, and identity of Kashmir is both “disappointing and disturbing” and emphasised that economic considerations cannot be placed above moral, social, and human well-being, and that justifying liquor on revenue grounds reflects a troubling approach to governance.
