The Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), one of the leading industry bodies for the hospitality industry, is expected to move the court to get a reprieve on the ban of sale of liquor in hotels and restaurants located within 500 meters from national and state highways.

Garish Oberoi, Vice-President, FHRAI, said it is likely to file a review petition in the Supreme Court liquor ban verdict in the next few days. “We will be holding a meeting with all our affiliate associations and industry players this week before we file the review petition,” he added.

Denotification process

Several State governments have already started the process of denotification of state and district highways into municipality and corporation-maintained roads. While this is expected to help liquor-serving establishments located close to state and district highways, those located close to national highways will continue to face challenges, a senior executive in the hospitality industry pointed out.

FHRAI has been making efforts to engage with both Central and State government officials in the past few days.

Pradeep Shetty, Honorary Secretary of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India and the Chairman-legal matters sub-committee, FHRAI, said: “We have been in consultation with the lawyers to look at all the legal remedies that are available to us and will be filing a review petition. The hospitality industry feels its views have not been represented before the apex court on this matter .”

While Shetty did not give a timeline, he said the industry continued to engage with all State governments.

Estimated loss

Earlier, the FHRAI had estimated the loss to the exchequer at ₹2 lakh crore and had said that nearly one lakh establishments were under threat of closure due to the court verdict. It had pegged losses to the industry at about ₹20,000 crore.

Industry players have been pointing out that even business generated through hosting corporate meetings, events and weddings at these establishments has been negatively impacted. An analysis by Crisil Research had said that premium hotels in cities such as Pune, Kolkata and Agra, will be the most impacted followed by Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and the Delhi-NCR region.

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