HC grants a week’s reprieve to liqour sellers

MUMBAI, MARCH 30: The Bombay High Court today directed that owners of liquor bars and permit rooms be allowed to pay their licence fees w...

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MUMBAI, MARCH 30: The Bombay High Court today directed that owners of liquor bars and permit rooms be allowed to pay their licence fees within a week from today according to the notification of the state excise department dated March 24, 1999. The Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR), which finds even these rates very high, has been given leave to challenge the March notification through a fresh petition.

The division bench of Justice A Agarwal and Justice D K Deshmukh were hearing a petition filed by AHAR challenging the notification of the state excise department of January 1999 whereby the license fees of all joints serving liquor, be they country liquor shops, beer bars, permit rooms or wine shops were increased by 300 per cent.

The petition stated that the state government in its various meetings with the petitioners earlier had given them to understand that the state would be increasing the fees by only a maximum of 10 per cent per year. Counsel for the petitioners R Rodrigues claimed thatthe association of the petitioners was affected since such a steep hike would lead to a closure of their activity. The increase, Rodrigues pointed out, apart from being unconscionable was also bad in law, tantamount to cutting at the roots of the business.

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The state had through the January notification increased the fees of permit rooms from Rs 88,000 to Rs 2.64 lakh, for beer bars from Rs 58,000 to Rs 1.82 lakh, for hotels with up to 100 rooms from Rs 1.32 lakh to Rs 3.96 lakh and for hotels having more than 100 rooms from Rs 1.76 lakh to Rs 5.28 lakh.

Following the association’s opposition to the hike, the state government through a notification of March 1999, reduced the licence fee hike to Rs 1.36 lakh in some categories. However, even these rates were found to be too high by the petitioners. Rodrigues today pointed out that the members of the association were being threatened by the excise officials to pay up by March 31, or else their shops would be sealed by the department.

The division benchtoday directed the state excise department not to take any action against any member of the association who have been asked to pay their licence fee within a week from today.