Highlights
- Bombay High Court grants permission to open a restaurant serving liquor near the school
- This restaurant is located at the required distance as per government rules
- Apart from this, another similar hotel is present in the area.
- School operators had appealed in Bombay High Court
Schools have the responsibility of helping the students to inculcate high moral values in them and provide them with such an environment. The Bombay High Court dismissed a petition seeking shifting of a restaurant serving liquor near the school on the same grounds.
Justice Girish Kulkarni observed that the petitioners were unable to prove before the court during the course of their arguments that the restaurant serving liquor could be a hindrance to the education being imparted by their school. And it can have a bad effect on children.
Social workers had filed a petition
Three social workers, who run schools and hostels for tribal children, had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court. The matter started when the owner of Hotel Moonlight demanded shifting of his liquor vend from Padli Barao village to another place in Junnar’s urban area.
However, in the year 2019, after the protest of the petitioner, the local people, the MP and MLA of Shirur, the local District Magistrate did not approve it. Justice Kulkarni said that the District Magistrate appears to have given this decision under extreme political pressure. There was also a school nearby where the application for shifting the sharbabke contract was made. For this reason, the District Magistrate rejected it.
Not allowed because of school
After the report of the investigating officer, the District Magistrate had said that as per the report of March 2019, the main gate of the school was 450 meters away from the restaurant. In August 2019 a new gate was found which was 144 meters northwest of the compound wall.
what is the rule
According to the Bombay Foreign Liquor Rule, there should be a distance of 75 meters between a school or a religious place and a liquor store or shop. Another hotel in this area with a similar license has been started for many years which is 375 meters away. To which the school did not object.
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