Telangana HC flays govt over caste-based wine shop quota

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday questioned the state government on what basis it had fixed reservations to various communities while allocating contracts for running wine shops for the year 2021-23.

Justice K. Lakshman directed the government to submit its contention and explain in written form on how it had arrived at the decision. He asked the government to submit the details to the court by Friday as the allotment of wine shops would be announced on November 20 and the last date of application is November 18.

Justice Lakshman was hearing a writ petition filed by Vasireddy Ravikanth and Nandyala Prabhakar Rao from Khammam district by way of lunch motion, questioning the constitutional validity of the GO No 87, dated 20-9-2021, issued by the commissioner, prohibition and excise department implementing reservations of 15 per cent to Gouds, 10 per cent to SCs and five per cent to STs while allotting liquor shops.

The petitioners sought suspension of the GO 87 on the ground that the GO was contrary to the Section 32 of the Telangana State Excise Act and sheer violation of the guidelines laid by the Supreme Court in catenae of judgments making it clear that caste cannot be the basis for providing reservations while granting licenses.

“As per the excise policy for the present year, Rs 50 lakh is fixed as excise tax up to the population of 5,000 and based on the population, tax will increase up to Rs 1.1 crore and application fees is Rs 2 lakh, which is not returnable, even if the applicant did not get the license. If Gouds are a socially and economically backward group, fixing the amount to that extent cannot be even imaginable. The government failed to provide the data. Exercise before further classification of the backward classes,” the petitioner said.