Giving relief to more than 700 bar owners to run their bars and clubs, the Supreme Court on Thursday restrained Kerala government from implementing its liquor policy till September 30.
As per the new policy bar licenses are limited to five star hotels only, as a part of a move to implement total prohibition in the state in next 10 years.
Under the policy, the UDF government had last month decided to shut down the bars attached to hotels below five-star categories. It had directed the bar owners to shut their shops starting from September 12.
The bench of justices Anil R Dave and UU Lalit rejected the state's argument that it is a social problem and government wanted to bar young people from going to bars and clubs to consume liquor.
"If you want to stop liqour consumption in the state, stop completely and why only five star hotels will be allowed to serve liqour and not other hotels and clubs," the court said and asked the Kerala High Court to dispose of the plea filed by the restaurant, bar and club owners.
Appearing for the state former Law Minister Kapil Sibbal submitted that in next ten years there will be a complete ban on liquor and argued that young children will not be able to afford to go to five star hotels and it is not possible for them to drink at home.
He said the license fee deposited by the hotels will be returned to the them and sought the court not to intervene saying it "a policy matter."
The bench observed "how can you say that only rich people are allowed to drink in five star hotels and people having less money are not supposed to take liquors."
Appearing for the hotels, senior advocates Ram Jethmalani, A C Sundaram, Rajiv Dhavan, argued separately on the point that the hotel owners have been running the bars for past several years and the government had granted them the existing license which will expire in March next year.
The government cannot create a ground by bringing policy to cancel them much before the expiry date unless they breached the license conditions, Jethmalani argued.
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