The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Puducherry government to close down immediately a liquor shop that was shifted from Mahe to Kulakudi in Karaikal region of the union territory. A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and V. Bhavani Subbaroyan issued the direction on a public interest litigation petition filed by a resident of Tirunallar commune.
The petitioner K. Devamani, in an affidavit filed through his counsel K. Balu, stated that the Puducherry government had been showing great interest in establishing several liquor shops even in scantily populated villages in Karaikal region since it was situated close to Tamil Nadu and therefore help in earning lot of revenue to the union territory.
He said that recently the government was forced to close down many liquor shops in Mahe region situated about 650 kilometres from Karaikal due to orders passed by the Supreme Court prohibiting such shops within 500 metres from highways. Therefore, the government had begun to shift all those shops and relocate them in Karaikal with an eye on revenue.
While perusing the case bundle, Mr. Justice Sivagnanam was shocked to come across a statement that had been made by the writ petitioner to a Deputy Commissioner of Excise on March 1. In the statement, he had opposed shifting of the liquor shop from Mahe to his village since there were already too many shops in the region.
Curiously, the statement claimed that there were only 35 families residing in Kulakudi and of them 20 families had lost their bread winners due to addiction to liquor. It stated that the 20 widows were struggling to eke out a living and hence establishing more shops would devastate the other families too.