HC permits liquor sale in Mumbai after LS poll results on June 4

The Bombay high court on Friday permitted the sale of liquor in Mumbai after the announcement of Lok Sabha poll results on June 4.

A vacation bench of Justices NR Borkar and Somasekhar Sundaresan said the ban imposed by the city collector on sale of liquor by hotels, restaurants, bars and permit rooms shall cease to have an effect upon declaration of results of elections in the city of Mumbai.

Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan informed the bench that the collector for Mumbai district suburban has already issued a letter modifying the earlier notification declaring June 4 as a dry day.

However, no such modification was issued by the Mumbai city collector.

The bench then quipped that while people in the city suburbs can drink after declaration of results those in the city cannot.

"Let's work it out. There has to be some parity," the high court said.

The court was hearing petitions filed by the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association challenging the orders passed by the Collectors of the Mumbai city and Mumbai district suburban declaring the whole day of June 4 as a dry day.

The pleas said that the sale of liquor should be permitted once election results are declared.

As per the pleas, the petitioner association had in April approached the Mumbai city collector and the Mumbai district suburban collector requesting them to review their decision declaring the whole day of June 4 as a dry day.

However, the collectors said no such review could be done as the orders were passed pursuant to directives from the Election Commission of India.

The petitions claimed that the association members pay huge amounts as license fees to the state government for carrying on business, whereas there are several illicit liquor manufacturers and bootleggers who have been manufacturing and selling illicit liquor as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor and beer in Mumbai.

Whenever the authorised outlets for sale of liquor are closed for various reasons, such illegal businesses thrive and bootleggers make huge profits through the illegal and illicit sale of liquor, taking undue advantage of the fact that liquor is not officially available.

The pleas had sought for the Collectors' orders to be modified to state that the establishments which sell liquor be permitted to open up for business after the declaration of results instead of the whole day.