Liquor shops shut for 2019 elections can resume business to clear stock: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed the resumption of business for liquor shop owners whose temporary licenses had been indefinitely suspended by the State in 2019 [Barun Malakar and Ors. v. The State of West Bengal and Ors.].

The State had issued the suspension order citing the Lok Sabha elections for 2019. However, even after the elections concluded, the State did not permit the liquor shops to resume their business and eventually also withdrew the liquor licence category under which they fell.

Aggrieved, the liquor licencees moved the High Court for relief.

By its November 13 judgment, a Division Bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Roy permitted the liquor shops to resume their business to clear out their stock. The ruling was passed on a batch of appeals filed by liquor licencees.

The liquor shops have been allowed to resume operations from December 15 and continue until the expiry of the licence period that remained when the 2019 suspension order was issued.

"We direct the respondent State to allow the appellants to run their businesses for the balance period as stipulated in their temporary licenses so that they can clear out the stock piled up in their respective shop rooms. The appellants shall be allowed to run their shops on and from 15th December, 2026, till the completion of the balance portion of their six-month term," the Court ordered.

In its ruling, the Court also underscored that while running a liquor business is not a fundamental right, a decision to suspend liquor licenses should be fair and reasonable.

"The State has absolute rights, but such rights should be exercised with fairness and reasonableness, free from arbitrariness, whims, or caprice... although the appellants (liquor licencees) do not have any fundamental right in running a liquor shop, the privilege or legal right granted to them cannot be withdrawn without assigning any conscionable reason," the Court said.

In this case, the Court pointed out that the temporary licences - which were given for a six month period - were kept under suspension long after the 2019 elections were over as well.

The Court went on to observe that State should have given cogent reasons for its decision to keep the operations of the liquor shops suspended even after the polls, failing which its approach was unjust and unconscionable

"It is true that the State has absolute rights, but when they grant a temporary license for a limited duration, it is reasonably expected that the State authorities should consider the condition and position of the appellants— who are businessmen, not criminals—in accordance with relevant rules and regulations, and therefore, the State authorities should have disclosed appropriate reasons for such prolongation of the suspension order," the Court added.

Senior Advocates Aninda Kr Mitra and Arindam Banerjee along with advocates Arpita Saha, Ashis Kr. Mukherjee and Saurabh Prasad represented the liquor shop owners.

The State was represented by Advocate General Surojit Nath Mitra with Government Pleader Amit Chakraborty and advocates Shiv Shankar Banerjee, Falguni Bandopadhyay and Soma Chakraborty.

[Read Order]