Foreign Liquor Rules: Government to move SC against HC order

Excise Minister K Babu on Saturday said that the state government would move the Supreme Court against the High Court order quashing the amendments brought to the Kerala Foreign Liquor Rules by the government under the Kerala Abkari Act.


He was speaking after inaugurating the state meet of the Kerala State Excise Staff Association at the District Cooperative Bank Auditorium.  The government will convene a meeting of advocate general, law secretary and ministers concerned in the presence of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at Thiruvananthapuram on July 31 for discussing the future course of action on the subject, he said.


Terming the High Court verdict disappointing, the minister said the government had announced the new excise policy with an aim to bring down the alcoholic consumption in the state in a phased manner.


The policy restricts new bar licences only to four and five star hotels from 2013-2014 and denies fresh bar licence to three star hotels in the state. “But, the latest court verdict had clipped the wings of the state’s excise policy,” he said. The High Court on Friday struck down as discriminatory and arbitrary the amendments to the Foreign Liquor Rule, 2011, which deny bar licence to new three-star hotels and prescribe distance norms for sanctioning bar licence to new hotels having four-star rating and above.


Association state president K Subramanyan presided over the function.


Cooperation Minister C N Balakrishnan, Mayor I P paul, MLAs Thermabil Ramakrishnan and P A Madhavan, district panchayat president K V Dasan and excise commissioner Anil Xavier also spoke.