The Gujarat High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed to issue a blanket ban restraining the respondent authority from taking any coercive measure against the Wine Shop owners ( licence holders of Daman), who are implicated in cases of Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949.
The assertion in the petition is that by implication the Wine Shop owners, who are running shops located in the Union Territory of Daman are being harassed by the police authorities in the State of Gujarat.
The PIL has been filed by Daman Wine Merchants Association.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee noted that in none of the paragraphs of the petition it is stated that the petitioner Association is a registered body nor copy of the registration has been placed on record. The only Resolution dated 26.12.2023 stating the alleged President of the Association to institute the petition has been appended to the petition.
“We fail to understand as to why the Wine Shop owners, who are not doing any business in the State of Gujarat would be implicated for selling liquor and the cases under the Gujarat prohibition Act, 1949, would be registered against them. For the above, as also for the fact that the present petition in the nature of PIL has been filed in the name of an Association, whose legal status has not been disclosed in the writ petition, we dismiss the writ petition being misconceived”, the order reads.