The Bombay High Court allowed the present writ petition and restricted the four-day ban on liquor sales to only one day i.e. date of voting due to the Maharashtra Legislative Council graduate constituencies elections. A single-judge bench comprising Hon’ble Justice Milind N. Jadhav was of the view that imposing a longer ban on liquor sales violates merchant’s right to livelihood.
Brief Facts:
The present writ petition was filed against the order/direction dated 05.01.2023 by which Respondents had imposed a ban on the sale of liquor in the jurisdiction of Nashik District in view of the proposed election to be held on 30.01.2023 for Nashik Graduate Constituency.
Submissions of the Petitioner:
The learned Counsel for the Petitioner submitted that the election being held is for the Graduate Constituencies and the voter's list is very restrictive. In that view, imposing the prohibitory ban for such a long period of four days would adversely affect the livelihood and the business of Petitioners.
The Petitioner had also annexed the several orders passed by this Court in earlier proceedings as well as Writ Petitions wherein similar orders passed by the State Government / Respondents had been curtailed and restricted only to the date of voting.
Submissions of the Respondent:
The learned Counsel for the Respondent submitted a letter dated 23.01.2023 issued by the Chief Election Officer, Maharashtra State, which states that initially, in so far as the Nashik Constituency was concerned, they had proposed to prohibit for four days. However, the Respondents have now restricted the same only to three days and exempted the date of counting.
Observation of the Court:
This Court, after considering the submissions of both sides, was of the view that the interest of justice would be served if the prohibition imposed by the Respondents gets restricted to only the date of voting i.e. 30.01.2023. It was further noted that the aforementioned issue is a recurring issue, and therefore, the Court directed the State Government to take note of it.
In the opinion of this Court, imposing a prohibitory ban for a long period on merchant establishments and establishments that provide livelihood is contrary to the enshrined principles under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Also, the present elections are not parliamentary elections and the yardstick applicable to those elections cannot be ipse dixit applied to elections for Graduate constituencies.
The decision of the Court:
The Bombay High Court allowed the present writ petition and restricted the ban on the sale of liquor to only the date of voting.
Case Title: All India Wine Producers Association v. Deputy Secretary and Assistant Chief Election Officer, Maharashtra State & Ors.
Coram: Hon’ble Justice Milind N. Jadhav
Case no.: WRIT PETITION (ST) NO. 2457 OF 2023
Advocate for the Petitioner: Mr Suresh M. Sabrad
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. P.G. Sawant
Read Judgment ;
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