Didn’t order opening of bars: HC

Pulls up govt for not alerting court on the status of two highway stretches

For States Page:A liquor bars sign peering out of a coconut grove to catch the attention of travelers passing on the National Highway near Kochi Kerala consumes the largest quantity of Indian-made foreign liquor in the country. From April to August this year, 55.86 lakh cases of foreign liquor and 19.08 lakh cases of beer, valued at Rs 1267.15 crore, were sold in the State. However, both production and consumption of coconut toddy, Keralas traditional drink, have fallen over the years. Digital Picture By K_K_Mustafah.20/09/06

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to close down the bars, beer and wine parlours opened along the Cherthala-Oachira-Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur-Vengalam-Kuttippuram roads in the wake of its directive to consider the claims of two bar hoteliers.

The court passed the oral directive while observing that it had never directed the government to take steps to open bars or beer and wine parlours, but had only asked the Deputy Excise Commissioners concerned to consider each application in the light of the Supreme Court ruling on the restrictions on the functioning of liquor shops along National Highways.

The court passed the order on a petition seeking the review of its judgment directing to consider claim of the two bar hoteliers for vending of liquor based on their renewed licences. The hoteliers had submitted that these roads had been excluded from the list of National Highways.

The review petition was filed by V.P. Ibrahim Kutty, councillor, Koyilandi municipality in Kozhikode. He contended that these roads were still in the schedule under Rule 2 of the National Highways Act, 1956.

Flaying the government for not bringing to its attention that these roads were National Highways, the court said that the government was “shooting off its shoulder”. The court added that if the Minister concerned and the authority concerned felt that the stretch came under the National Highways Authority of India, then why did the Excise Department renew the licence.

In fact, there was no directive to open bars. The court made it clear that it had only directed the Deputy Commissioners of Excise to consider the claim of the petitioners to continue vending of liquor based on their renewed licences in terms of the Supreme Court guidelines. The Deputy Commissioners had every right to reject the application for renewal of licences if they were of the opinion that bars were located by the National Highway.

The State government submitted that it allowed the plea of the hotelier on the basis of the observations in the judgment. The court then said that if there were any mistake in the judgment, the government pleader could have brought it to the attention of the court on the very same day.