Former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president V.M. Sudheeran has demanded Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi’s resignation in view his advice to the State government on the Supreme Court verdict against sale of liquor along national and State highways and his appearance in an earlier case in favour of a bar hotel owner who challenged the liquor policy of the previous UDF government.
Mr. Sudheeran wrote to Mr. Rohatgi on Sunday that the Supreme Court verdict had clearly prohibited the sale of liquor along the national and State highways, including bar hotels and beer-wine parlours, which were places where liquor was sold. The judgment had even prevented signage about the availability of liquor.
Many States had already implemented it in its true spirit. But the Kerala government, on the basis of the Attorney General’s advice, had taken a contumacious stand declaring that the court verdict did not apply to bar hotels and beer-wine parlours. According to the State government, they had obtained an advice from Mr. Rohatgi that only retail liquor outlets need be closed.
Earlier case
Mr. Sudheeran recalled in his letter Mr. Rohatgi’s action of appearing for a bar hotel owner in the High Court case against the UDF government’s liquor policy. He said that Mr. Rohatgi, as the Attorney General of India, should not have appeared for a bar hotel owner to challenge the policy of a State government. Now, he had given an advice to the government to flout the Supreme Court judgment.
“There is every reason to believe that you have given such an advice which is plainly untenable in the light of the clear text of the judgment only to help a few bar hotel owners in the State,” Mr. Sudheeran said in his letter.
