KERALA BAR HOTEL ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I heard Mr. C.C. Thomas, Mr. T.A. Shaji, Senior Advocates and Mr. George Poonthottam, Mr. Thomas Abraham, Mr. N. Reghuraj, Mr. Sudhi Vasudevan, Mr. Anoop. V. Nair, Advocates on behalf of the petitioners as well as Mr. Tom. K. Thomas, Government Pleader and Mr. Basil Attipetty, on behalf of the respondents. Paucity of time in the midst of summer recess compels me to consider only the interim relief sought by the petitioners in these Writ Petitions and defer the final hearing. The practice of granting FL-3 license to hotels having three-star classification was dispensed with by amendment made to the Foreign Liquor Rules ('the Rules' for short). The amendment was made by G.O. (P) No. 192/2011/TD dated 9.12.2011 after the announcement of the Abkari policy for the year 2011-12 by G.O. (MS) No. 107/2011/TD dated 17.8.2011. The amendment deleting three-star hotels from the category eligible for FL-3 license was struck down in Surendra Das v. State of Kerala,2013 1 KerLT 34. But the same was set aside to the extent it interfered with the amendment made to the Rules in State of Kerala v. Surendra Das, 2014 1 KerLT 948(SC). The operative part of the judgment of the Supreme Court reversing the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court as regards the amendment to the Rules is as follows:-

(2.) The Supreme Court has in the said decision noticed the continuance of licence for hotels having lesser classification by virtue of the 6th and 7th provisos to Rule 13(3) of the Rules. The very observation of the Supreme Court justifying the criticism made to the provisos to the Rule afore-quoted is extracted hereunder:-

(3.) The State Government was thus alerted of the need to have a re-look at its Abkari policy and probably to adopt a uniform criterion for the renewal of licence to the hotels. The State Government had earlier granted time up to the year 2007 and later up to the year 2010 to the existing licencees to upgrade the standard of their hotels to two-star and above. The Government thought that it is time for an introspection as regards the renewal of licence in the context of the observations in Surendra Das's case particularly of slow action. The State Government accordingly issued G.O(Ms) No. 56/2014/TD dated Thiruvananthapuram 2.4.2014 (which is impugned in these Writ Petitions) and para. 6 there of is as follows:-