The district will have just a five-star bar hotel and five wine- beer parlours in the wake of the verdict of the Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala on Tuesday.
Hotel Gateway is the lone five-star bar hotel in the district. However, there is also another five-star hotel, WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu, at Azhinjilam near Ramanattukkara, in Malappuram district, functioning close to the city.
As many as 24 bars downed their shutters on Tuesday night. All of these had reopened after the verdict of the single bench of the High Court earlier. Five wine and beer parlours which had opened after the modified liquor policy of the State government in January, will also function in the district.
Excise officials took stock of the unsold liquor from the closed bar hotels. The liquor bottles have been sealed and shifted to the godown of the warehouse of the Beverages Corporation.
Five bars in the district had already closed after March 31, 2014. These had been listed among the 418 bars in the State categorised as sub-standard. Then again, licences of 24 bars were cancelled following the implementation of the government’s liquor policy on September 12, 2014.
Later two bars reopened after the court verdict gave permission to five-star, four-star and heritage hotels to serve liquor. Soon afterwards 22 bars also secured a favourable verdict to function.
At that time, five bar hotels categorised as sub-standard were then not allowed to function. But they began to function under new licences in the category of beer-wine parlours. The verdict on Tuesday is a huge windfall for them.
Previously, 30 bars functioned in the district. But from April 1, 2014, the government only renewed the licence of 25 bars.
The district also has 14 beverages outlets and four retail outlets of Consumerfed. Besides there are two clubs, namely Cosmopolitan and Exclusive, in the city, two military canteens and 208 toddy shops. The closure of a large number of bar hotels has put the Excise and Police officials in a predicament. The police would have a difficult time in maintaining law and order in front of the retails outlets.
The situation is likely to result in brewing and selling of spurious liquor that was once rampant in the rural belts and interior hill regions of the district.
The smuggling of liquor from the Union Territory of Mahe could also increase in the coming days, officials said.
