Taking a serious view that the State Government is going ahead with the process of e-auction of liquor shops without adhering to an earlier judgment passed by this court on July 24, 2013, the Odisha HC on Friday slapped an interim stay on the operation of a notification of the Government made in February this year. The State Excise Department on February 6 had issued a notification for e-auction of liquor shops in Cuttack and Baleswar districts as a pilot project. While auction of liquor shops in these two districts was scheduled on March 23, it would have been in made in remaining 28 districts in April.
However, challenging the notification, several petitions were filed in the court. Adjudicating the petitions filed Himansu Mohan Padhi and Monalisha Rath, a Division Bench comprising Justices Indrajit Mahanti and Biswanath Mohapatra granted an interim stay on the Excise Department notification. Sources said the Government is contemplating to move the High Court soon to get the stay order vacated after putting the necessary infrastructure in place for the process of e-auction. With a view to getting rid of the present lottery system in allotting liquor shops, the Government has been trying to introduce e-auction of these allotments since 2013 in order to fetch more revenue. Accordingly, a notification to this effect was made in March 2013.
But the High Court had intervened and quashed the Government notification in July 2013 suggesting that proper infrastructure should have been in place before changing the modalities of allotment of some 1500 liquor shops (Country Spirit and IMFl) in the State.