Refusing to interfere in the Congress-led UDF Government’s new Excise policy which envisaged total liquor ban in ten years, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday declined to stay the Government decision for closure of all the 730 bars below the five-star category in the State.
With this court order, it is now certain that only bars of the five-star category will function in entire Kerala after September 12, the deadline given to the 730 bars to close down. A division bench of the High Court also made it clear that it could not stop the Government from its decision to serve notices of closure on the bar owners.
Bar owners said they would approach the Supreme Court with an appeal. As many as 418 bars have been lying closed in the State since April 1 following the Government’s decision not to renew their licences as they were lacking the facilities required to run the business. The Government had served notices on the remaining 312 bars to close down by September 12.
As per a recommendation the ruling UDF made on August 21 which the Government later ratified, all the bars in the State are to be closed before next Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) and the 384 retail liquor outlets run by State-owned agencies Kerala State Beverages Corporation and ConsumerFed will be closed down in the next ten years at a rate of ten percent per year.
At the end of day-long arguments, the division bench pointed out that the bar owners could not question the Government’s decision as it had been clearly stated in the licences given to them at the start of the current financial year that the licences were of temporary nature and would be subject to the Excise policy to be announced later.
Pointing out that liquor business was not fundamental right, the division bench comprising Justices Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and PB Suresh Kumar said there was no reason to interfere in the Government’s decision as it had made clear that closure of all bars was part of its Excise policy.
The State Advocate General submitted before the court that eradication of liquor was a programme mentioned in the ruling front’s election manifesto and that the Government’s decision to order bar closure could not be interpreted as unexpected.
Bar owners’ representative Biju Ramesh agreed that the licences were given to them for this year under certain conditions. “But we had expected to get some favourable decision from the High Court as our business was being stopped all of a sudden,”he said.