HC sets aside Punjab liquor auctions

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">CHANDIGARH: In a setback to Amarinder Singh government in Punjab, the auction of liquor vends in some of the districts were on Wednesday set aside by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. <br /><br />The same are now to be auctioned afresh within 10 days with the direction that the present contractors would continue to run vends till new arrangement is in place.<br /><br />This was ordered by thee division bench of the Justice Narindeer Kumar Sud and Hemant Gupta while pronouncing the judgement it had reserved last week on the petition preferred by Sanjeev Bhandari a liquor contractor of Hoshiarpur.The order of the bench has affected in all 856 vends of the districts of Jalandhar-I and II (excise districts), Nawanshahar and Hoshiarpur.<br /><br />The order about the present liquor vends contract to continue till the new arrangement becomes effective, came during the post lunch sitting of the bench when the state advocate general conveyed the inability of the state government to run the vends till fresh auction, as had been ordered in the pronouncement during earlier part of the day. <br /><br />It was submitted that the state government did not have the necessary infrastructure to manage such a large number of vends.<br /><br />Allowing the state prayer, the bench amended its earlier order to provide for running the vends by the present contractors on the payment of proportionate licence fee on the rates approved for the financial year 2003-04. However, the fresh auctions have to take place by April 10.<br /><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />During the course of arguments, the former advocate general Haryana Mohan Jain appearing for the petitioner had alleged that the state government had been made to suffer loss of revenue as the petitioner who bid for Rs 72 crore for the district of Hoshiarpur was not allowed to record the bid as the authorities were apparently under pressure to favour Uttar Pradesh liquor baron Ponty Chadha whose proximity to the top Congress leaders was too well known and who was in the fray under one name or the other. <br /><br />The liquor vends at Jalandhar auctioned on March 4, 2004 went for Rs 163.16 crore, the counsel disclosed and added the entire liquor vends in Punjab would fetch over Rs 200 crore more than what had been the state revenue in recent auctions. <br /><br />However, cases of liquor vends of Ludhiana I, II and III (excise districts) are slated to be heard on April 5 while a plea in regard to liquor vends at Patran and Samana in district Patiala too figure in similar petitions also scheduled for a hearing on the same date. <br />It was also alleged by the counsel for the petitioner that the auction was conducted in an unfair manner without giving due and proper opportunity to the prospective buyers under the directions of Mukul Joshi state financial commissioner, taxation who was very close to Ponty Chadha liquor baron from Uttra Pradesh. It was further alleged that it was on Joshi’s instructions that the auction conditions were violated. <br /><br />Following this, the bench directed that the fresh auction would be conducted under the supervision of three financial commissioners of Punjab. <br /><br />The counsel for the petitioner further said the excise circles of Nawanshahar could also not be clubbed with Jalandhar-I and Jalandhar – II, the counsel further argued since grouping of vends as per liquor auction rules was allowed upto a maximum of Rs 15 crore. The total of Jalandhar-I, Nawanshahar and Jalandhar-II comes to Rs 163.16 crore, whereas Hoshiarpur alone accounted for Rs 70 crore, which confirmed auctions were conducted contrary to rules.<br /><br />Before coming to the conclusion to set aside the auctions, the bench heard at length, the counsel for the petitioner besides Harbhagwan Singh and Ashok Aggarwal the advocates general respectively for Punjab and Haryana. <br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>