High Court orders reexamination of the closed bars
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Thiruvananthapuram: The High Court has asked the UDF government to inspect again the bars that were closed down following a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report which stated that the bars had very poor infrastructure.
Citing the report, the government refused to renew the licences of the 418 bars during the annual renewal of all the bars usually done ahead of the start of the current fiscal.
A Division Bench of the court on Thursday ordered the Excise Commissioner and the Excise department secretary to complete the inspection as soon as possible.
The evaluation report should be submitted by August 26.
The court, which observed that it cannot drag the issue incessantly without taking a final decision, asked the government “isn’t it right to conduct a reexamination on the closed bars.”
Advocate General K P Dandapani, who appeared for the State, conceded that the government was not against a reevaluation. He also submitted that the procedure of renewing the bar licences was done following a Supreme Court order.