Liquor vendors in Nagpur move HC seeking nod to resume sale

Merchants and liquor shop owners filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to do away with the order restricting the sale of alcohol in Maharashtra's Nagpur city.

Nagpur:An association of wine merchants and liquor shop owners filed a petition in the Bombay High Court on Thursday seeking to quash the order restricting the sale of alcohol in Maharashtra's Nagpur city.

In its petition, the Maharashtra Wine Merchants Association cited that liquor shops were permitted to operate across the country, but establishments in Nagpur continue to remain shut, as the civic body had enforced revised lockdown norms on par with Mumbai and Pune.

Liquor shops have remained shut for the last one month and vendors, shop owners and even state exchequer have incurred severe losses because of the same, the plea stated.

"Even though the number of COVID-19 cases are much higher in cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad than Nagpur, liquor shops are being permitted to remain open in those cities," the plea said.

The petitioner noted that the Centre's notification on May 2 permitted standalone shops and liquor shops, which were not in containment zones, to operate.

However, on May 3, the Nagpur civic body had issued a notification stating that a revised lockdown will be imposed in the city on par with the Mumbai Metropolitan and Pune Metropolitan regions, restricting the sale of liquor within the city, it stated.

The petitioner sought for the restriction order to be quashed and permit the sale of available stock.

The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday.

(PTI report)