HC sets aside liquor vend auctions

The Amarinder Singh government suffered a serious setback on Wednesday when the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside the March 4 liquor vend auctions of Jalandhar-I, Jalandhar-II, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar excise circles, following a petition challenging their legality. A HC division bench comprising Justice N.K. Sud and Justice Hemant Gupta today directed the Punjab government to re-auction the vends. The orders were passed on a petition filed by Sanjeev Bhandari, a liquor contractor, who had challenged the auction. Petitioner’s counsel Mohan Jain said that a higher bid of Rs 72 crore from Hoshiarpur was ignored by the department, which closed the auction at Rs 70 crore.