The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has put on hold an earlier order passed by the High Court for removal of a Tasmac shop in Madurai on the premise that consumption of liquor was a social evil. There was no distance rule violation and the licensee of the Tasmac shop was not given an opportunity to be heard, the court observed.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and S. Ananthi put on hold the order to remove a Tasmac shop situated on Thattankulam Main Road in Madurai. The judges observed that without going into the actual violation, a Division Bench of the court passed an order directing the removal of the shop on the premise that consumption of liquor was a social evil.
The court said that the liquor outlet had been running for the past seven years and the petitioner had made a representation only in 2019. Tasmac, in its counter affidavit, stated that there had been no distance violation.
The licensee also moved the court stating that he was not given an opportunity to explain and the shop was closed though there was no violation. All parameters had been satisfied at the time of issue of the licence, he said.
Taking note of the submissions made in the case, the court said that the earlier order passed required it to be put on hold. The court permitted the licensee to run the shop till further orders and posted the matter for completion of pleadings to March 22.
