NEPAL SINGH RAJPUT Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition, which has been filed as publicinterest litigation, petitioner, inter alia, has sought a writ of certiorari seeking thequashing of the proceedings for allotment of foreign liquor shop in favour ofrespondent No. 5 in Village Dhooma, Tehsil Lakhnadaon, District Seoni.Petitioner has also sought a direction restraining respondent Nos. 1 to 4 fromallotting foreign liquor shop in village Dhooma to anybody.

(2.) Facts leading to filing of the instant writ petition briefly stated are thatpetitioner claims to be President of Shri Ram Yuva Dal, Dhooma. The aforesaidDal is engaged in social welfare activities. Petitioner claims to be localcorrespondent of a daily newspaper namely 'Sandhya Dainik' published fromJabalpur. It is averred in the writ petition that Excise Policy was notified andpublished in the Gazette by the Government of Madhya Pradesh on 28-1-2010.Clause 1.2 of the Excise Policy, provides that liquor shop in scheduled areas canbe opened only after obtaining consent from the concerned Gram Sabha. Beforeissuance of Excise Policy for the year 2010-2011, consent of out-going electedbody of the Gram Sabha was obtained on 1-11-2009 vide Annexure-P/2.Thereafter, tenders were invited and decision for, allotment of foreign liquor shopto respondent No. 5 in Village Dhooma has been taken on 26-2-2010. It hasfurther averred in the writ petition that elections of Panchayat in the State ofMadhya Pradesh were held in the month of January, 2010 and thereafter the firstmeeting of Gram Sabha was held on 8-3-2010. Gram Sabha in its meeting on 8-3-2010 decided not to permit opening of the liquor shop in Village Dhooma.Copy of the resolution of the Gram Sabha has been annexed as Annexure-P/3. Inthe aforesaid factual backdrop, petitioner has prayed for the reliefs referred tosupra.

(3.) Return has been filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 to 4 in which interalia it is pleaded that proceedings for allotment of foreign liquor shop in favourof respondent No. 5 have been taken in accordance with law and the petition filedby the petitioner cannot be entertained as public interest litigation. It has furtherbeen averred that there is no element of public interest involved in the writpetition. The locus of the petitioner to file the writ petition has also beenquestioned. It has been pleaded that as per requirement of section 61-E of theM.P. Excise Act, 1915, permission of Gram Sabha is required for opening theforeign liquor shop in scheduled area. Therefore, permission was obtained fromGram Sabha which was given vide resolution dated 2-11-2009. The DistrictExcise Officer forwarded the resolution to the Excise Commissioner andthereafter the shop at Dhooma was notified in the Excise Policy which waspublished in the Gazette dated 28-1-2010. No objection was taken by anyvillagers even after publication of the notification dated 28-1-2010. The Sarpanchand Panchas of Gram Panchayat Dhooma after declaration of the result ofelection assumed charge on 11-2-2010. The facts that a new liquor shop would beopened at Village Dhooma was well within the knowledge of Sarpanch andPanchas. However, neither any villager nor the Sarpanch or Panchas or any otheroffice bearers of Gram Panchayat took any objection with regard to opening ofthe Foreign Liquor Shop till finalization of tender process i.e. 26-2-2010. It isalso averred in the return that one Deepak Jaiswal who is running the countryliquor shop at Dhooma has filed a writ petition namely W. P. No. 2242/2010 inwhich action of the State Government in opening the foreign liquor shop atDhooma has been challenged. Thus, the instant writ petition is not a genuinepublic interest litigation but is a sponsored petition.