High Court upholds Kerala government's phased prohibition plan
Date
3/31/2015 11:30:16 PM
(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Decision to convert bars into beer wine parlours also upheld.
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Trivandrum: In a huge relief to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government rocked by the bar bribery scam the Kerala high court on Tuesday fully upheld its liquor policy providing for phased prohibition.
A division bench comprising Justices K.T. Sankaran Babu Mathew and P. Joseph has passed the verdict while dismissing the state government appeal against a single judge’s verdict allowing bars in four star and heritage category hotels to function and a batch of petitions filed by the bar owners seeking renewal of the bar licenses.
The court has also upheld the government decision to convert the bars into beer and wine parlours. The order will result in the closure of 312 bars functioning now in four-star and heritage category from Wednesday. There will be only 24 five-star category bars left in the state now.
The government had shut down all bars below the five star category in September last year as part of its policy to introduce total prohibition in a phased manner. The single bench had allowed 324 bars in the three and four-star categories to function accepting the bar owners argument that the government policy was discriminatory.
However the division bench turned down this argument saying that the government had a right to frame policies for protecting the health of the people.
Noting that the policy was for the welfare of the people the court refused to interfere with the government’s right.
The court also rejected the bar owners’ argument that the decision to shut down the bars was taken by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy single handedly without any scientific studies saying that the government had taken into consideration reports of various expert panels including the single-man commission report. The bar owners said they will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. The Kerala Bar Hotel Owners’ Association president Rajkumar Unni said that the bars functioning now will be shut down as per the court verdict and they will move the apex court immediately.
Excise Minister K Babu has termed the verdict as a victory of the government’s policy to free Kerala from liquor in a phased manner.
He told reporters that the government will bring down the availability of liquor in a phased manner.
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