Kerala High Court: In order to protect the health and welfare of the people, a bench of K.T. Sankaran and Babu Mathew P. Joseph JJ gave a landmark judgment holding that only five star hotels are eligible to be granted FL-3 licence to serve liquor. The bench also ordered for rehabilitation of the employees who loose their job due to closing of the bar.

In the instant case, the 2-star, 3-star, 4-star, heritage hotel owners and unclassified hotel owners challenged the Abkari Policy for the year 2014-15 and the consequent amendments of the Foreign Liquor Rules. The learned Single Judge bench as per judgment dated 30.10.2014 in Xavier’s Residency v. State of Kerala (2014) 4 KLT 419, allowed hotels having 4-stars and heritage category to be granted FL-3 licence under the Foreign Liquor Rules (FLR) to serve alcohol, and thereby brought consequential amendments to the FLR as well as the proceedings of the excise commissioner.

The Counsel for the petitioner N. Venkataraman, contended that the policy is liable to be struck down as the classification between 2-star, 3-star, 4-star and 5-star hotels to promote tourism as per Rule 13 (3) of the FLP is arbitrary and unreasonable, and there must be intelligible differentia having a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved. The Counsel for the State Kapil Sibal, contended that the word used in the Rule 13, namely, “in the interest of promotion of tourism” cannot be read in isolation, welfare of people should also be taken note of.

The Court noted that a citizen has no fundamental right to claim that he should have access to every place of his choice to consume alcoholic drinks and for that hotels should be provided with bar licences. The Court observed that as per Hon’ble Minister of Home and Vigilance, there was reduction of crimes by 30% after closure of some of the bars and there was reduction of 31% of cases relating to domestic violence, and that the policy is in consonance with Article 47 of the Constitution as it’s aim is to improve public health and standard of living of its people. The Court found that 4-star hotels and heritage hotels cannot be equated with 5-star hotels as different yardsticks are provided for categorization of these hotels. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the judgment of the learned Single Judge, and upheld the Abkari Policy 2014-15 and the amendments made consequent thereto, while setting aside that part of the judgment which declared the policy bad to the extent of excluding hotels having 4-star and heritage category from the eligibility to be granted FL-3 licence to serve alcohol. Xavier’s Residency v. State of Kerala, 2015 SCC OnLine Ker 2024 , decided on 31.03.2015