Holding that the Cherthala-Oachira-Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur-Vengalam-Kuttippuram stretches have been take off the list of National Highways, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday held that the Supreme Court ban on beer and wine parlours along National Highways would not be applicable to parlours along the stretch.
The court made the ruling while disposing of writ petitions filed by two bar hoteliers located on these roads against the Excise Department’s action in preventing sale of liquor from their bars. The court pointed out that the notification issued by the Centre on March 5, 2014 indicated that the Cherthala-Oachira- Thiruvananthapuram road was no longer a National Highway or State Highway. In a notification issued on August 4, 2014, the Centre had amended the earlier notification and excluded the Kannur-Vengalam-Kuttippuram road from the list of National Highways.
The court found force in the arguments of the petitioners that as these stretches ceased to be a highway at the time when the Supreme Court had delivered its judgment, the authorities were not justified in interdicting them from operating their bars. The rigour of the Supreme Court directives would apply only to notified National/State Highways.
The court further observed that while the Supreme Court directives would not be applicable to these roads, the other directives relating to distance norms from any other National/State Highway and direct access from any other National/State Highway would obviously be relevant.
The court directed the Excise Deputy Commissioner to consider the claim of the petitioners to allow vending of liquor based on the renewed licences, strictly on Supreme Court directives.
