Liquor ban: Hoteliers, bar owners protest against SC verdict

The top court also emphasised that the ban was also meant for hotels, restaurants and bars and not just standalone liquor vendors, refuting Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s arguments, the Live Law report said.

“How logical is it that you can’t serve liquor in a five-star hotel?”

Duttaprasad Naik, president of Goa Liquor Traders Association regarding this verdict stated that the party destination Goa will be badly affected and most of the tourists come to Goa and fetch a peaceful place to drink. Also, the decision of closing hotels and bars along highways will have a bad impact on local employment and excise collection; one estimate had Maharashtra losing Rs 7,000 crore in revenue, and the closure of Gurugram’s Cyber Hub and its bars will render hundreds jobless.

This process has “no connection with liquor shops”, Sharma claimed.

These include outlets run by the Beverages Corporation and Consumerfed, 11 bars in five star hotels, bars in 18 clubs, 586 beer wine parlours and 1,132 toddy shops which have been told to stop serving liquor. They have been with me for so many years.

With no intent to comment on the spirit behind the ban on alcohol, the court’s order has resulted in a major debate all over as it is going to affect a large section of society, industry and result in losses as well.

In Delhi NCR, premium hotels like Westin, Trident, Leela and a few in the Aerocity will be badly affected by the ban in terms of business. Minister for Finance Thomas Isaac on Monday said that there is an expected revenue loss of Rs 5,000.

Hoping to diminish the impact of ban on liquor sale along national and state highways, the state administrations of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh have reportedly begun denotifying state highways and declare them as “roads”.

The apex court said people who got licences for liquor vends prior to the 15 December 2016 verdict can operate till 30 September while others will have to shut down from Saturday.

However, he added that the meeting went off well as “the Chief Minister has promised to help us”.

State governments are also looking into ways to circumvent the restrictions and Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh have already chose to denotify some state highways to allow businesses to continue.