PERUMAL WINES Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mahe, part of the Union Territory of Pondicherry, is a small town, having access by land only through the Kerala State. It is a Pondicherry town landlocked in the Kerala State. Mahe does not manufacture liquor. Liquor has therefore to be transported from Pondicherry through Kerala State to Mahe or it has to be imported from other States to Mahe via Kerala. Kerala is thus a transit route for bringing liquor to Mahe. The petitioners are dealers in liquor, licenced by the Pondicherry State to carry on wholesale trade in liquor in Mahe. Necessarily they have to import liquor from the States of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu etc. or transport it from Pondicherry State itself. They obtain the necessary licence/permit for importing or transporting liquor to Mahe. But as the liquor has to be carried in transit through the Kerala State, the State Government insisted on transit permits under the Kerala Abkari Act. The petitioners used to obtain these permits without any difficulty, but recently, in some cases, applications for the permits were either kept pending or were arbitrarily rejected. The result was that the petitioners were not able to carry on their trade in liquor in Mahe eventhough they had a licence granted by the Pondicherry State, as no liquor could be imported or transported to Mahe. They have, therefore, filed these writ petitions mainly for a declaration that they do not require any transit permits under the Kerala Abkari Act for importing/transporting liquor to Mahe and also for the issue of appropriate consequential writ or directions. In some cases, orders have been passed by the Government rejecting the applications for issue of transit permits. These orders are also in challenge. We shall separately deal with those cases where specific orders rejecting the applications for transit permit are issued. We shall deal with the general issues involved in these writ petitions.

(2.) Shri. C.S. Vaidyanathan, Advocate leading the arguments in this batch of writ petitions, submitted that the Kerala Abkari Act and the rules do not insist on transit permits in Kerala for importing liquor to Mahe from States other than Pondicherry, or for carrying the liquor through the Kerala State to Mahe and therefore, he submitted that the insistence by the State Government of transit permit in Kerala State for transporting liquor to Mahe in Pondicherry State was plainly without jurisdiction. He also submitted that the action of the State Government in refusing or rejecting transit permits in Kerala for transporting/importing liquor to Mahe was opposed to Art.304 of the Constitution. He also contended that, in any case, the reasons stated for rejecting the application for transit permit are illogical and irrelevant, unsound and unreasonable, not warranted or contemplated under the Abkari Act or the rules.

(3.) Shri. Sudhakaran, Advocate General, however, contended that the Abkari Act applies not only to liquor, but also to intoxicating drugs and that the State is well within its power to control the transport of any liquor or intoxicating drug through its territory, whether the destination was to any place outside this State or not. It was submitted that the large number of liquor shops in the small town of Mahe indicate that huge quantities of liquor are brought to the town from outside, not for consumption inside Mahe, but to be taken out clandestinely to the neighbouring towns of Badagara, Tellicherry etc. in this State and it is necessary to restrict the import of liquor to Mahe so that smuggling of liquor to Kerala can be curtailed or prevented.