Madhya Pradesh high court issues notice to officials in liquor row

BHOPAL: A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday issued notices to the principal secretary, excise, and the excise commissioner of MP, seeking a reply on why action should not be initiated against them for contempt of court.
The bench headed by Chief Justice A K Mittal issued the notice to two top officials of the excise department after the petitioners - 30 liquor contractors of the state - moved an application in the court alleging that the excise department had issued notices to some liquor contractors warning of action for not opening their shops and had also confiscated the amount of bank guarantee of a liquor contractor in Mandsaur despite the court directive in the previous hearing "not to take any coercive action" against the petitioners.
The petitioners comprising liquor contractors, who have got contracts to operate liquour shops at different places in the state in the year 2020-21, had in the previous hearing pleaded with the court to cancel their contracts because they won't be able to run the shops on the existing terms and conditions.
A majority of liquor contractors in the state had refused to open their shops when the state government gave them permission to do so during the later part of lockdown-4.
They were asking for reduction in licence fee as the shops remained closed for two months, causing them huge financial losses. Even when they were permitted to open the shops, it was only for a few hours during the day while, in the contract, they could have opened the shop from 9.30 am to 11.00 pm.
When their talks with the state govermment failed, they had moved the court, which had asked the MP government to resolve the issue in accordance with a decision of the Punjab & Haryana high court in a similar dispute.
In the previous hearing, it asked the state government to present a final action taken report in the matter and not proceed with any coercive action against the petitioners.
Senior counsels Mukul Rohtagi, Naman Nagrath and Rahul Diwakar appeared on the court on behalf of the liquor traders while solicitor general of India, Tushar Mehta, and advocate geneal of MP, Purushendra Kaurav, appeared on the state government's behalf. Hearing in the case will continue on Wednesday.