Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has turned down a PIL challenging the transferring of a liquor shop to a village, which already has five liquor shops. The Beed district collector had ordered transfer of a country liquor shop to Badrapur village of Beed. The move did not go well with the villagers, who later filed a PIL.The village sarpanch had filed a PIL, citing that the Gram Panchayat in the interest of the village has passed a resolution of not giving an NOC to any of the liquor shops in the future.The division bench of the HC comprising Justice SS Shinde and Justice RG Avachat turned down the PIL by concluding that the petition lacks bonafide. “The transfer of licence was necessitated in view of the Supreme Court’s order, dated December 15, 2016, prohibiting running of bars and liquor shops within the distance of 500 meters from the national as well as state highways.The HC has further stated that collector has transferred the licence after following due process of law and in strict compliance with the provisions of the Act and the rules thereunder.The HC even expressed its surprise as to why the Gram Panchayat did not raise any objection against the five liquor vendors already operating in the village.40-year-old sarpanch, Sudhakar Pandhari Shingare of Bardapur in Ambajogai of Beed had filed a PIL before the HC with a plea to quash and set aside the order passed by the Beed collector on May 28, 2018, which granted permission to transfer liquor shop from village Nadadi in Ambajogai to village Bardapur.The resolution of Gram Panchayat dated January 26, 2018, which Shingare cited stated that the villagers had decided not to grant an No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the new liquor shop at the village, since there are 5 liquor shops already running there. The sarpanch also contested that before taking decision to transfer the licence, NOC was not obtained from the village Gram Panchayat.Lawyer PR Katneshwarkar, contested that the petition has been filed with an oblique motive. The lawyer pointed out before the HC that brother of the sarpanch, runs a permit room at the village, due to which the sarpanch forged the representations from the villagers and ensured passing of a resolution in the meeting of the members of the Panchayat.The HC while turning down the PIL stated, “It is not in dispute that there are 5 liquor vends at the village. Opening of one more would, therefore, be of a little consequence. Admittedly, the brother of the village sarpanch is the owner of one of those liquor vends. He is the proprietor of a bar, situated in close vicinity of the disputed country liquor shop. The respondents have, therefore, every reason to contend that the petition lacks bonafides.”

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