The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), which holds the exclusive privilege for wholesale as well as retail sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the State, to disclose measures that had been put in place by it to ensure supply of good quality liquor by the distilleries.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and Anita Sumanth also wanted to know whether lists containing the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for different kinds of liquor were displayed in all retail shops run by Tasmac across the State as required under the Code of Prevention and Detection of Fraudulent Acts in Tasmac of 2014.
The Bench granted time till June 18 for Tasmac to file a comprehensive report. The directions were issued on a public interest litigation petition filed by R. Kullupadaiyachi, 67, former vice president of Jari Kondalampatti panchayat in Salem district. His counsel K. Selvaraj claimed that liquor was not sold within MRP in any of the shops.
He also brought it to the notice of the judge that no bills or receipts were issued for purchase of liquor and those who refused to pay money over and above the MRP to the salesmen, were denied liquor. Claiming that a majority of Tasmac customers were poor and downtrodden, he said, they could not be forced to purchase liquor at a premium.
He insisted that MRP should be displayed prominently in all liquor shops and bills should be issued to every customer.
