Only five-star hotel bars can serve liquor in Kerala: Supreme Court

Trivandrum: In a big boost to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala, the Supreme Court has upheld its liquor policy providing for phased prohibition in the state within 10 years.
A division bench, comprising Justice Vikramajit Singh and Shiva Kirti Singh, passed the order on Tuesday while dismissing a batch of petitions from liquor bar owners and workers, challenging a high court judgment upholding the policy.
The petitioners had challenged the policy, limiting the sale of alcohol to only hotels with five-star classification, as discriminatory. The state government had justified the provision as a measure to protect the interest of the tourism industry.

The policy announced in September 2014 provided for closure of all bars below five-star category and 10 per cent each retail outlets every year. Accordingly, the 730 bars were shut down in October 2014 and about 70 retail outlets in the last two years. Later, the government allowed the closed bars to run beer and wine parlours.
Though phased prohibition was listed in the UDF poll agenda, its government did not take any major initiative to implement it in the first three years. The process began with a decision not to renew the licenses of 418 bars found below standard by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the eve of the Lok Sabha election.
The government's plan was to renew them after serving the ruling front's electoral interest, but V M Sudheeran, who took over as the Congress chief by then, made the going tough by taking an adamant stand against reopening any of the 418 bars.
When the support started swelling for Sudheeran, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy made the surprise announcement to shut down all bars below five-star category and implement phased prohibition in 10 years. During the hearing of the appeals in August, the apex court had expressed doubt about the success of the policy considering the availability of liquor in retail outlets and five star hotels. The observation had given a ray of hope to the bar owners and the workers.
However, the apex court on Tuesday backed the policy saying it was for the health of the nation. The high court in March this year had upheld the policy stating that it was in the interest of the public welfare.
Excise Minister K Babu termed the verdict as an approval to the UDF government's social responsibility. He said that the government would now go ahead with its campaign against liquor consumption to free the state from alcohol.
The bar owners said they would examine other legal options to save the industry from total collapse. Kerala State Bar Hotel Owners' Association president Rajkumar Unni has appealed to the government to review the policy when it frames its liquor policy for the next financial year.
The verdict is considered as a big relief for the UDF government, which is reeling under bar bribery charges.
While finance minister K M Mani has already resigned, a vigilance court has ordered an investigation against the excise minister on the basis of bribery allegations levelled against them by bar owner Biju Ramesh.
However, the opposition which is nurturing the bar bribery as a major poll issue in the Assembly elections slated to be held in April-May this year, hopes that the bar owners may reveal more about the bribes allegedly given to UDF ministers and leaders for restoring the bar licenses in the light of the setback they have suffered in the apex court.
The apex court verdict may make the task easy for governments in other states which are planning similar prohibition or restriction in sale of liquor. While Bihar Chief Minister Nithish Kumar has already initiated steps for a total alcohol ban while demand for prohibition is mounting in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Many states have been watching the implementation of the policy in Kerala closely. Even though 18 months have passed since the phased prohibition was introduced, no serious study has been done so far about its impact.
A study Alcohol and Drug Information Center (AIDIC), an NGO, showed that the alcohol consumption had dropped by 20.27 per cent since April 2014, when bars were partially closed.
According to the study, the sales of IMFL dropped by 53.7 million ltrs (24.92 per cent) after the closure of all the 730 bars in October 2014 and around 70 outlets in the state.
This is considered significant since the state has been registering an annual growth of 12 per cent to 67 per cent for the last 30 years.
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