Owners of hotels with two-star facilities/standards have approached the High Court of Kerala seeking a direction to the State government to renew their bar licences.
The petitioners sought to declare that all hotels that had bar facility as on March 31, 2014, were entitled for the renewal of Foreign Liquor 3 licence as long as the “government permits the renewal of bar licences of any category existing on that date under the Foreign Liquor Rules on implementation of the liquor policy 2017.”
The hotel owners contended that the abrupt cancellation of bar licences below five-star category hotels by the previous government in 2014 had led their hotels to function with beer and wine facilities only. The present government renewed the bar licences for only those hotels which had bar facility as on March 31, 2014, and having valid three-star and above classification, leaving out hotels with two-star facilities/standards, the petitioners said.
The act of the government denying the renewal of bar licence was highly discriminatory and in violation of the fundamental rights. Despite representing before the government, no action was taken to redress the grievance, the petitioners said.
The petition was likely to be considered on Friday.
