The Bombay High Court will decide if Dr Abhyas Bang’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against a state government order lifting the liquor ban in Chandrapur district will be heard by the Principal seat or the Nagpur bench.
The PIL came up for hearing before the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik on Monday. The bench asked the petitioners as to why they were before the Bombay High Court in Mumbai.
Advocates Rafiq Dada and Uday Warunjikar, representing Bang, said, “They lifted prohibition on liquor. It is a tribal belt. Tribals get addicted and the worst affected are the women and children. The decision is taken in Mumbai so we are here.”
In total there are three petitions before the court. Chief Justice Dipankar Datta said, “With Mantralay being here all decisions are bound to be taken here. But the effect comes there. So it has to desirably go to Nagpur.”
However the petitioners said that they would rather have it heard in Mumbai, the principal seat. At this, the Chief Justice said, “I consider the Principal seat as well as the others benches of the high court at par with each other. You are pressing for and challenging a June order of Chandrapur then you need to go to Nagpur bench as that has the jurisdiction. Had you come before the June order then we could look into it, or if you say that you will not challenge the order and this petition is pan Maharashtra then we will look into it.”
Dada replied, “we are not forum shopping but this does have impact at other places as well. But we were essentially looking for the June cabinet order, one of the activist managed to get it in October.” He also pointed out that the bench was hearing a petition regarding malnutrition in Melghat.
The bench reminded Dada that the Melghat petition was a suo motu petition taken by the then Chief Justice in 2002. With this, the bench decided to keep the petition on administrative side for them to decide where it should be heard.
Bang, a social activist working with tribals of Gadchiroli who had spearheaded the movement for prohibition of liquor in that district, along with former MLA WS Chatap and a few tribals, have filed a petition in the Bombay High Court. While Gadchiroli saw prohibition in 1992, Chandrapur saw liquor ban in 2015.
However, between May and June this year, the Maharashtra Cabinet took decision of repealing the ban on sale and consumption of liquor in the Chandrapur district. The decision was claimed to be based on the recommendations of a committee. The state government issued a circular and ordered the restoring of earlier liquor licenses in the district.
Petitioners submitted that the reasons cited in the Cabinet decision of May this year to lift the prohibition are not only false and incorrect, but are irrelevant and extraneous to the decision, rendering it arbitrary, unreasonable and baseless. It added that the Cabinet decision indicates that the same has been taken on the basis of recommendations made by a committee “when in fact the said committee never made any such recommendation. Hence the entire basis of the decision is false and misleading.”
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/pils-in-bombay-hc-challenge-chandrapur-liquor-ban-lifted-by-maharashtra-govt-1889930-2021-12-20
