LUMSDEN CLUB RAMBAGH GARDENS AMRITSAR Vs. PUNJAB STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE principal point for decision which has been somewhat obscured by the raising of a number of subsidiary issues is whether the Excise and Taxation commissioner was justified in declining to issue an excise licence to the Lumsden club at Amritsar. ,

(2.) THE petitioner in this case is the Lumsden Club, Amritsar, a society registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, with the object of promoting social intercourse encouraging literature and sport and providing rational entertainment and amusement. The income of the club which is derived almost entirely from entrance fees, membership fees and money paid by the members for the food and drinks consumed by them or their friends and is expended for defraying the day to day expenses of the organisation. Prior to 1954 the intoxicating liquors purchased by the club were supplied to the members or their specially invited guests at a price fixed by, the Executive committee of the Club.

(3.) ON 4-1-1949 the Excise and Taxation commissioner issued a notification under section 54,. Punjab Excise Act, which declared that no club, 'bona fide' or proprietary shall be at liberty to sell foreign liquor by retail unless it had obtained a licence in form L. 12. C. The Lumsden Club which had been supplying liquor to its members in the past, as a mere incident of the general purposes of the club, applied for and was granted a licence in the prescribed form. Early in 1954 Government announced its decision to prohibit licensed drinking of liquor at civilian clubs throughout the State and in pursuance of this decision the excise Commissioner rejected the Club's application for renewal of the licence-for the year 1954-55. The members of the Club who were deprived of the right to take liquor" from the Club decided-to purchase their own liquor and' to place it in their own separate lockers, but on 2-2-1955 the Punjab Government issued a notification under Section 24 (4), Punjab Excise Act, declaring that no person shall be at liberty to keep intoxicating liquors on the premises of an unlicensed club. The Club which is aggrieved by the order of Government has presented two separate petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution --one assailing the validity of the order preventing it from distributing liquor to its members and the other challenging the validity of the order prohibiting members of the Club from keeping their own intoxicating liquor in the Club.