The Kerala High Court has asked the government to reconsider the applications of 13 four-star hotels for bar licence within eight weeks.
The interim order was passed by Justice C.K. Abdul Rehim on Tuesday on petitions filed by JK Residency, Kelakam, and 12 others.
The court observed that in all the 13 cases, the issue raised by the petitioners was the issue of bar licence for hotels with four-star classification. The applications to be reconsidered included the 12 that had been rejected earlier and a fresh one.
The petitioners contented that bar licence was required for the hotels to be classified as four-star hotels as stipulated by the India Tourism Department. The petitioners approached the court as the State had stopped issuing bar licence.
They also pointed out a recent Supreme Court order, which stated that the State government cannot deny bar licence to hotels with four-star classification and above.
Passing the interim order, the court observed that the petitions had to be considered elaborately on the basis of the apex court decision and the policy decision of the State government on bar licence. Advocate General K.P. Dhandapani conceded that the State government had no difficulty in considering the case of the petitioners in the wake of the apex court order.
Counsel for the bar hotels submitted before the court that the government had not taken a decision on bar licences for the last six months. The government was also not accepting the applications for bar licence though it was duty-bound to accept them and pass orders within a reasonable time. They also pointed out that their hotels were not among the 418 bars that had been reported as sub-standard.
