Comments
The distance factor from schools, hospitals and religious places alone is not paramount while allowing or refusing to allow a liquor vendor to set up shop. The objections of the residents of the locality must also be given due considerations. So held the Bombay High Court in Hotel Shoba vs. Department of Excise, Maharashtra, while ruling that societal concerns were uppermost when they were at odds, and came into conflict, with private interests. The court was seized of a matter involving State government’s powers under the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949 to grant or deny liquor vending licenses.
The Court brushed aside the argument of the petitioner that the objections of the neighbourhood ought not to have weighed with the authorities while rejecting the liquor vending application license inasmuch as they could always have sought police and Governmental help when actual nuisance was created by drunken behaviour. The Court pointed out that the very purpose of seeking public response before granting or denying license under the Act was to prevent a potential nuisance from brewing rather than wait for it to rear its menacing head and then chop it off. The residents of the neighbouring locality, admittedly away by the statutory distance of 100 metres from the hotel, apprehended that children and women returning home late from their work were especially vulnerable to attack and abuses from those emerging out of the hotel in an inebriated state. A bar on bar near residential colonies, places of learning, worship and convalescence (hospitals) was also called for in view of the mushrooming of ancillary activities such as snack shops around the bar, creating their own law and order problems.
The Court quoted with evident approval the following lines among others from Bernard Shaw, a teetotaller: “Only teetotallers can produce the best and sanest of which they are capable……Drinking is the chloroform that enables the poor to endure the painful operation of living.”
(The author is a New Delhi-based chartered accountant)
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.