M A I N   N E W S

Punjab fails to get interim stay in liquor vends case
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, April 2
The Punjab Government today failed to get interim stay from the Supreme Court on the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order quashing auction of liquor vends in three districts but got a partial relief as it was allowed to run the vends itself for the time being.

Issuing notices to three contractors on whose petition the High Court had quashed the auction, a Bench of Mr Justice S Rajendra Babu, Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Mr Justice G.P. Mathur said the interim arrangement provided by the High Court in the meantime would continue.

Notices were issued to contractors - Sanjeev Bhandari, A.R. Traders and J.K. Associates, who had moved the High Court alleging that the auction was not done fairly.

The High Court, which had quashed the auction of the vends in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr supposed to have fetched the state licence fee of Rs 233.16 crore, had said that till fresh auction was conducted by the government, it should run the vends itself. The High Court had given 10 days time to the government to conduct fresh auction.

Since the Supreme Court today ordered continuation of the interim arrangement as directed by the High Court, it would mean that the government would run the vends itself till any further direction by the apex court.

Though Punjab’s Advocate General Harbhagwan Singh and Additional strong plea for stay of the High Court’s order, the Bench did not agree to accept their plea for ex-parte stay at notice stage.

On their plea for early hearing of the matter, the court said it would be listed in appropriate time after service of notice is complete.

Challenging the High Court order, the Punjab Government in its appeal said the auction in the three districts was done as per the excise rules and policy of the state and its order had put entire public auction of Rs 1,200 crore in jeopardy.

The Advocate General said if the High Court order was allowed to operate the state would suffer “irreparable loss” because the licences for earlier vends had expired on March 31 itself and the state was not in a position to run the business itself.

“There will be a great chaos and the entire trade is going to come to a stand still, causing huge loss to the state exchequer,” the government in its petition said.

The auction would have brought the government licence fee of Rs 41.12 crore from Jalandhar-I, Rs 84.40 crore from Jalandhar-II, Rs 37.64 Nawanshahr and Rs 70 crore from Hoshiarpur areas.