Court alters excise notice on dry day

Mumbai: In a relief for liquor vendors and tipplers in Thane district, the Bombay high court has altered the state excise notification that initially sought to impose three dry days followed by a fourth one on counting day for the upcoming graduate constituency (Konkan region) polls scheduled on June 25.

Paying heed to writ petitions filed by the Maharashtra Wine Merchants Association and other trade organisations, seeking cancellation of the unjustified dry stint, a division bench comprising Justice N.W. Sambre and Justice Shantanu Kemkar altered the notification, limiting the dry spell to a single day, that too, just between 8 am and 6 pm on polling day on June 25.

Based on Election Commission (EC) directives, the excise department, Thane, had issued closure orders to all liquor vending establishments in the region between 5 pm on June 23 to June 25 and again on counting day on June 28. The excise department orders were in accordance with the Maharashtra Foreign Liquor (sale on cash register of sales) Rules, 1969.

In addition to banning sales, the transportation and storage of liquor had also been prohibited to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections, officials said.