GRAM PANCHAYAT Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner Gram Panchayat has questioned the action of respondent-Excise and Taxation Authorities of re-establishing liquor vends - One for English wine and the other for country made liquor - within the jurisdiction of the petitioner-Gram Panchayat and auctioning the same for the year 1987-88.

(2.) The case set in the petition is that the liquor vends functioned within the jurisdiction of the petitioner-Gram Panchayat upto the year 1985, when on 5th September, 1985 the petitioner-Gram Panchayat passed the resolution, Annexure P.1, in terms of section 26 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act , 1952, as applicable to the State of Haryana (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). In pursuance of the said resolution, the liquor vends were closed with effect from 1st April, 1986, and, therefore, for the year 1986-87 the liquor vends were not auctioned. The petitioner-Gram Panchayat, however, came to know on 4th March, 1987, that Excise and Taxation Authorities were contemplating re-establishment of the liquor vends and for the auctioning thereof for the year 1987-88. Acting on this information, the petitioner represented against this to the concerned Deputy Commissioner. The Deputy Commissioner on 6th March, 1987, held an inquiry on the spot and on 7th March, 1987, forwarded his report, Annexure P 6, to the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Rohtak, in which he express the opinion that the department should not insist upon the opening of liquor vends in Village Iserhari and instead it should select an alternative suitable site for locating the liquor vends. The petitioner also wrote to the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Bahadurgarh Sub-division, seeking information regarding case of illicit distillation in the petitioner's area, if any, on 21st March, 1987, who after examining the Police record of the Bahadurgarh Police Station supplied the information to the petitioner-Gram Panchayat which is reproduced in paragraph 11 of the writ petition in which he has mentioned that since 1981 there had been no case of illicit distillation within the jurisdiction of the petitioner-Gram Panchayat, whereas, on the contrary there had been eight cases as a result of the opening of the liquor vend in question in the said village. It is alleged in the petition that the petitioner-Gram Panchayat is opposed to the opening of the liquor vend in the Village at the given site, because that place happened to be located on Delhi-Najafgarh Road, which is frequented by truck drivers and it is located on the passage where the women folk of the village go to fetch water and that a Primary School is also located nearby.

(3.) The case up in reply on behalf of respondents 1 to 3, in brief is two fold -one that the Excise and Taxation Authorities wee competent to re-auction the liquor vends for the year 1987-88, because the Gram Panchayat vide resolution dated 17th February, 1987, Annexure Rule 1/A had sought for the re-opening of the vends within its jurisdiction at the given place and secondly, the earlier resolution, Annexure P. 1, exhausted its efficacy after 31st March, 1987. The petitioner-Gram Panchayat ought to have passed in 1986, a fresh resolution like the one it has passed in the year 1985.