The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by French wine and spirits giant Pernod Ricard challenging the Delhi government’s decision to denying it a wholesale liquor license.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav ruled that as on date, the company has a "criminal background" as per Section 13(1)(c) of the Delhi Excise Act and is, therefore, ineligible for the grant of L-1 license.

"The decision-making process of the respondents while adjudicating upon the petitioner‘s Applications was not arbitrary, illegal, or violative of Article 14 of the Constitution," the Court concluded.

It added that the the condition for not being convicted of a criminal offence under Section 13(1)(c) of the Delhi Excise Act is the floor and not the ceiling for a person to not have a criminal background.

"The word "or" as it appears in the said provision, between the expression "has no criminal background" and "has not been convicted of any offence" is to be read as "and"," the Court added.

The Court passed the order on a plea by Pernod Ricard challenging an order rejecting its L-1 wholesale liquor licence applications on the ground of a pending money laundering prosecution by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The company is an accused in the Delhi excise policy case.

The company challenged a February 17 order of the Financial Commissioner (FC), which upheld an earlier order of the Excise Commissioner refusing the licences under Section 13(1)(c) of the Delhi Excise Act, 2009.

Pernod Ricard argued that the authorities wrongly treated the pendency of criminal proceedings as equivalent to a “criminal background”, despite there being no conviction against the company.

The company argued that Section 13 only disqualifies applicants who have been convicted and that the FC effectively rewrote the law by reading “pending prosecution” into the eligibility criteria.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Jayant Mehta along with advocates Ninad Laud, Raj Kamal, Karan Khanuja, Zubin Dash, Harneet Singh, Kunal Khanuja, Ishani Shekhar, Manish Kr Sharma, Somil Jain and Dhruv Raman Singh appeared for Pernod Ricard. 

The Delhi government was represented by its Standing Counsel (Civil) Sameer Vashisht, Panel Counsel Avni Singh as well as advocates Harshita Nathrani, Vaibhav Sharma and Aryaman Vachche. 

[Read Judgement]