The State government on Wednesday informed a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court that it had decided to conduct an impact assessment study of its new abkari policy on various sectors in the State economy such as tourism, labour, and hotel industry.
The government submitted before the Bench comprising Justice K.T. Sankaran and Justice P.D. Rajan that the Principal Secretary of the Labour Department and the Secretary of the Tourism Department had been entrusted with the conduct of the study. They were asked to submit a report in three weeks.
The submissions were made when appeals filed by the State government and three-star hoteliers came up for hearing.
The Bench extended till January 20 its earlier interim order to maintain status quo with respect to the closure of bars in three-star and two-star hotels.
The court also said that a petition filed by the Kerala Catholic Bishop Council Madya Virudha Samithi seeking to vacate the interim order could not be considered as a proper application.
The court also asked the Kerala State Beverages (Manufacturing and Marketing) Corporation to furnish the details of its sales by January 14, 2015. The appeals by the State government challenged a single judge’s verdict allowing bars in four-star and heritage category hotels to function. By permitting renewal of bar licence to four-star hotels and classified restaurants, the single judge had diluted the policy of the government which was beyond the power of the court.
