The Salt Water Grill restaurant at Girgaum Chowpatty is serving up an unpalatable dish for the city police.
The Salt Water Grill restaurant at Girgaum Chowpatty is serving up an unpalatable dish for the city police.
Fed up with the police refusing to act on their application for a permanent Public Entertainment Licence (PEL), owners of the restaurant, Drishti Adventure Sports Pvt. Ltd, have moved the Bombay High Court. In the absence of a PEL, which entitles a restaurant to serve liquor, the high-end sea-side eatery has been serving only food to its patrons for a while.
Drishti, which started the H2O Water Sports Club in 2001 at Chowpatty, started the restaurant last year. Trouble started in February 2006, when the police insisted that for serving liquor they would need a PEL, in addition to a temporary club licence. The police issued them temporary PELs on two occasions. The second licence expired in March, following which an application for a permanent PEL was filed on April 1.
The restaurant was raided on April 2, and the police accused the management of selling liquor without a valid licence. The charge had been denied.
Meanwhile, the city collector has also rejected an application for a temporary club licence, which would allow sale of liquor on a daily basis. The collector’s order was challenged, and subsequently quashed by the State Excise Commissioner.
The restaurant’s petition alleged that the police were guilty of “gross dereliction of duty” by not acting on its application for PEL. It also pointed out that no time limit had been set for processing a license application by the police.
Assistant government pleader, who appeared for the police, argued that the restaurant had violated terms of its original lease, which permitted only a snack bar serving pre-cooked food. The restaurant has been found guilty of violating the 1.30 am deadline on six occasions and rents out its premises for private parties and weddings, he said. He also alleged that the restaurant was allowed a space of 550 sq-mt but encroached upon more land.
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