Liquor ban of over 48 hours for Friday’s MLC poll in Bengaluru ‘excessive’: Karnataka HC
The high court restricts the ban to the polling and counting days and says its order shall not ‘have any precedential value for any purpose whatsoever’.
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The association claimed the long-drawn ban on liquor sale would cause business losses to hotels and bars in the city. (File Photo)
A ban on the sale of liquor in the Karnataka capital for over 48 hours from Wednesday on account of the Legislative Council election to the Bangalore Teachers’ constituency on Friday has been ruled as “excessive” and restricted to the polling and counting days by the Karnataka High Court.
A single-judge bench of Justice SR Krishna Kumar ruled on Wednesday in favour of the Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association, which along with individual hoteliers filed a petition opposing a February 6 order of the police commissioner/district executive magistrate banning the sale of liquor in Bengaluru from 5 pm on February 14 to 6 am on February 17.
The association claimed the long-drawn ban on liquor sale would cause business losses to hotels and bars in the city.
“At this stage, suffice it to state that it would be just and appropriate to restrict/confine /limit the ban on sale, distribution and serving of liquor only on the date of polling and the date of counting between 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. midnight,” the bench ruled. “The ban on the sale, distribution, serving of liquor etc, in all retail shops, hotels, bars, bar and restaurants etc, imposed in the revised order dated 13.02.2024 is confined, limited and restricted only from 6 a.m. on 16.02.2024 up to midnight of 16. 02.2024 and also only from 6 a.m. 20.02.2024 till midnight of 20.02.2024.”
‘Excessive’ to ban sales for two days
The move to restrict liquor sale for over 48 hours was excessive given the nature of the poll involved as only around 16,000 of the nearly 85-lakh population of Karnataka make up the electorate, the court said.
“It is prima facie clear that having regard to the nature of elections and the electorate involved in the elections, the impugned notifications/orders imposing a ban on liquor on days other than the day of polling and day of counting is clearly excessive and does not have any nexus with the aims and objects sought to be achieved by the Act and the Rules and consequently, the ban deserves to be reduced only to be imposed on the date of polling and date of counting,” the court order read.
The high court observed that the constituency comprised 16,063 voters, who are all teachers with 10,106 of them being women. A long-drawn ban on liquor sale therefore “does not appear to have any nexus with the probability/possibility of liquor having an impact/influence” on the peaceful conduct of the poll, it added.
“It is made clear that this order is passed in the special/peculiar facts and circumstances of the instant case and shall not be treated as precedent nor shall have any precedential value for any purpose whatsoever,” the court ruled.
The hotels’ association argued that the ban for days other than the polling and counting days was illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the provisions of the Karnataka Excise Licences (General Conditions) Rules 1967.
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