PREMKUMAR Vs. COMMISSIONER OF EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The arrack shop conducted by the fourth respondent is situate within the prohibited distance from educational institutions, a Church, a Temple and a Mosque. This Original Petition has been filed for necessary directions to the Excise authority concerned to cancel the licence granted to the arrack shop in the present location, or for such other directions to compel the fourth respondent to shift the arrack shop to a place outside the prohibited area. A commissioner appointed by this Court has reported that the arrack shop is situated within the prohibited distance from such institutions. The fourth respondent did not succeed in proving that his arrack shop is situated out side the distance specified in R.6(2) (b) of the Kerala Abkari Shops (Disposal in Auction) Rules, 1974 (for short 'the Rules').

(2.) However, the respondents seek to justify the location of the arrack shop on the ground that the same business was conducted in a building situated just opposite to the present shop room during the previous year 1988-89. Evidently the respondents seek refuge under the second proviso to R.6(2) (b). The second proviso was inserted in the Rules by the Kerala Abkari Shops (Disposal in Auction) Amendment Rules, 1989. That proviso reads as follows:

(3.) A sketch has been produced by the fourth respondent to indicate the location of the present arrack shop. Ext.R4(a) sketch shows that the two buildings (one in which the arrack business was conducted during 1988-89 and the other in which the business is being conducted now) are separated by a small road. Those buildings are located opposite to each other. Both of them are in the same survey number, though not in the same sub division.