Summary:
He requested the court to direct the authorities to take immediate steps to regulate the issue of licence and collection of fee for bars attached to Tasmac shops.The petitioner further alleged that most of such bars are functioning in unauthorized buildings, and in an unhygienic manner.When the plea came up for hearing, authorities told that surprise checks, conducted by senior divisional manager and district managers of Tasmac between April and December 2018, revealed that 2,505 illegal bars were operating without proper licences. CHENNAI: Appalled by the submission made by the state government that 3,326 FIRs have been filed so far in connection with illegal and unauthorized bars attached to Tasmac retail outlets across the state, the Madras high court on Tuesday directed the authorities to take immediate action to close all such bars and file a report to the court by February 20.A division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the order on a plea moved by D Prabakaran, a resident of Coimbatore. In a subsequent inspection, another 821 bars were found to be operating illegally.Taking the report on record, the bench said, “The secretary, home, prohibition and excise department, is directed to collect the details of illegal bars from the district collectors and district managers of Tasmac, and issue a direction to forthwith close all illegal bars and report the same to the court.”According to the petitioner, Tasmac authorities have failed to implement the Code of Prevention and Detection of Fraudulent Acts in Tasmac 2014, which deals with issuing of purchase bills, rendering periodical accounts, collection of license fee from bars, and prevention of charging excess rates.Alleging that Tasmac shops never issue bills for the products purchased, the petitioner stated that bars are not displaying the price list of eatables and that they are sold in exorbitant rates..