Meghalaya Intoxicating Liquor (Prohibition of Publication of Advertisements) Act, 1976
No: 14 Dated: Oct, 09 1976
THE MEGHALAYA INTOXICATING LIQUOR (PROHIBITION OF PUBLICATION OF ADVERTISEMENTS) ACT, 1976
MEGHALAYA ACT 14 OF 1976
An Act To prohibit the advertisement of liquor by cinematographic exhibition and on walls, buildings and hoardings in public places, and to provide for matters connected therewith Be it enacted by the Legislature of Meghalaya in the Twenty-seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the Meghalaya Intoxicating Liquor (Prohibition of Publication of Advertisements) Act, 1976.
(2) It extends to the whole of Meghalaya.
(3) It shall come into force at once.
2. Definitions:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:-
(a) “advertisement” includes any printed, cyclostyled, type-written, hand-written or painted matter or a design or pictorial representation and also includes the distribution or display of such matter, design or representation on any wall, building or hoarding in a public place or any announcement by means of producing or transmitting light or sound, whether by cinematographic exhibition, neon signs or otherwise ;
(b) “intoxicating liquor” does not include a drug as defined in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 ;
(c) “officer of the Excise Department” means any officer of the Excise Department appointed under Section 8 of the Meghalaya Excise Act ( Eastern Bengal and Assam Act I of 1910 as adapted and amended by Meghalaya).
3. Prohibition of advertisements relating toe liquor:- No person shall publish or cause to be published any advertisements which solicits the use of, of offers for sale, any intoxicating liquor.
Explanation:- A sign-board on any premises in which intoxicating liquor is manufactured or sold or offered for sale indicating merely that such liquor is manufactured, or sold or offered for sale in those premises, and any catalogue or price list of such liquor kept or maintained in such premises, shall not amount to the publication of such an advertisement.
4.Presumption:- Where any advertisement relating to any intoxicating liquor has been published in contravention of Section 3, it shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that the person on whose behalf it purports to have been published is the person who has published it or caused it to be published.
5. Power of the inspection and seizure of material object containing published advertisements:- (1) Subject to the provisions of any rules made in this behalf, any officer of the Excise Department not below the rank of Excise Inspector may –
(a) enter and search at all reasonable time with such assistance, if any, as he considers necessary, any place in which he has reason to believe that an offence punishable under this Act has been or is being committed ;
(b) seize and detain any article used for purposes of an advertisement which he has reason to believe contravenes any of the provisions of this Act ;
(c) examine any record, register, document or any other material object found in any place mentioned in clause (a) and seize the same, if he has reason to believe that it may furnish evidence of the commission of an offence punishable under this Act.
(2) Where any officer seizes any property under sub- section (1) such seizure shall be reported to a Magistrate forthwith, and the provisions of Chapter XXXIV of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, shall apply to the custody and disposal thereof as they apply to property referred to therein.