Ensure there is no liquor shop in residential locality: HC : Rashtra News
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Audit pertaining to location of all liquor shops must be completed in two months, says court
Telangana High Court had directed the government to conduct a survey of all liquor shops in the State to ensure no liquor shop along with permit is located in a residential locality.
Pronouncing the verdict in a PIL petition challenging some rules relating to location of liquor shops and permit rooms, a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice N. Tukaramji also made it clear that no liquor shop should be permitted near hospital, religious institution or school. Disposing of the PIL petition, the bench said the exercise of the audit pertaining to location of all liquor shops must be completed in two months.
A compliance report in this regard should be presented to the HC Registrar General, the bench said in its order. There was no reason to declare Rules 25 and 26 of the Telangana Excise (Grant of License of Selling by Shop and Conditions of Licenses) Rules-2012 as contended by the petitioner, the verdict said.
The bench, however, made it clear that the government should “ensure that consumption of liquor does not take take place outside the permit rooms or outside the bar which causes inconvenience to public at large”. The government must strictly comply with all the provisions of the Excise Act and Telangana Excise Rules.
Excise Rules allowed permit rooms attached to liquor shops. But there were no conditions or stipulations regulating sale or consumption of liquor in such permit room, the petitioner stated.
Persons purchasing liquor were consuming it outside permit rooms creating law and order problems in residential localities. They were also causing difficulties to women, children and elderly persons, the petitioner argued.
The bench noted that the petitioner had not brought to its notice location of any liquor shop in any residential area. “This court cannot conduct a roving enquiry in respect of all the shops in the State,” the bench observed.
If a licence was granted to a liquor shop in any residential area causing inconvenience to the public, the petitioner can move the court by filing a writ petition, the bench said. Allowing permit rooms at liquor shops was the government’s policy decision.
Unless and until a statutory provision infringes the constitutional rights guaranteed to a citizen, it cannot be struck down, the judgement said.
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( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.thehindu.com feed.)