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The Kerala unit of the Congress party prevailed over the party high command in Delhi to prevent party spokesmen and top lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi from representing bar hotel owners in proceedings in the apex court on Wednesday.
This was after a battery of legal brains secured an early hearing on an interim application filed by the bar owners from Kerala against cancellation of bar licences as part of the new liquor policy.
The Congress-led State Committee met in the morning and contacted Delhi to restrain Sibal and Singhvi who too had been sounded by the bar owners.
Batch of casesEarlier in the day, the Supreme Court heard the application filed by Kerala Classified Hotels and Resorts and others against the State Government policy of enforcing total prohibition in phases.
The State Government had served an ultimatum on all hotels except the five-star ones to shut down bars effective from Friday, September 12, in a historic shift in policy.
In initial remarks, an apex court Bench questioned the ‘logic’ behind the new liquor policy to shut down the bars while allowing those in five-star hotels to function without any restriction.
It agreed to hear the petitions in detail on Thursday and proceeded to caution the State Government against ‘precipitating matters’ until then.
Legal brainsThe bar hotel owners had initially moved the High Court of Kerala but it had refused to set aside the order which was a policy matter decided by the State Government.
The aggrieved then moved the Supreme Court and requested that their plea be heard expeditiously since the closure order comes into effect from Friday itself. The petitioners had lined up the best of legal brains, including Sibal and Singhvi. Sibal opted to switch sides apparently after the central leadership of the Congress intervened.
Sibal went on to argue that the bar owners’ right to sell liquor is not a fundamental right. He said this step was taken as part of a policy decision.
Those present to argue on behalf of the bar owners included Fali S Nariman, Ram Jethmalani, Rajeev Dhavan, and Aryama Sundaram.
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