V M Sudheeran holds up CM Pinarayi Vijayan on contempt plea

Kochi: Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran has moved the Supreme Court seeking the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for deciding to grant or renew licences to bars and hotel owners to sell liquor along state and national highways in violation of  the apex court order. Mr Sudheeran, who  had earlier moved the   SC against the state in the case, claimed that the apex court intended to prevent  the vending of liquor anywhere near or facing the national or  state highways. It had directed  the state to desist  from granting licences for the sale of liquor along the national  highways and state highways.

It does not make any distinction between the bar hotels, including beer-wine parlours, on the one hand and retail outlets on the other, he  said. The order was  about total prohibition against the sale of  liquor along the stretches of the highways. The government  of Kerala should not have sought  or accepted advice from the Attorney-General of India who appeared for the bar hotel owners of Kerala in the case which challenged the liquor  policy of the erstwhile government of Kerala in 2015.   According to the petitioner,   on March 17, Mr Vijayan’s cabinet decided to renew or grant licences to hotel and restaurant owners after obtaining Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi’s opinion on the issue.