State to file fresh affidavit in Kerala High Court on bar licences: Excise Minister

The State government will file a fresh additional affidavit in the High Court on granting bar licences to hotels whose star classification applications are pending before the Union Tourism Ministry, Excise Minister M. Liju said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Liju said the fresh affidavit would be submitted in view of new information received from the Union Tourism Ministry regarding the status of applications for star classification.

He said bar licences were normally granted to hotels having classifications ranging from three to five stars under the existing policy.

However, the previous government had decided to consider applications for bar licences from hotels whose star-classification applications were pending before the Union Tourism Ministry.

A case challenging the decision was subsequently filed before the Kerala High Court, he said.

Mr. Liju said that after the new government assumed office, it found that the details of applications rejected by the Union Tourism Ministry were unavailable.

“The State Excise and Taxes departments wrote to the Union Tourism Ministry seeking details of how many applications were pending and how many had been rejected. Since the information was not available, the government initially filed an affidavit explaining the position adopted by the previous government,” he said.

The Minister said the Centre had since responded, providing details of the number of applications rejected and those still under consideration.

However, the State government had sought further clarification on the details.

He also said the Union Tourism Ministry had now filed a fresh affidavit before the High Court in connection with the case.

Mr. Liju said he recently attended a meeting with officials of the Taxes and Excise departments and the State Attorney handling the case to discuss the new developments.

“The government wants to proceed transparently and protect the existing rules, laws and policy. We have also obtained the opinions of the State Attorney and the Excise and Taxes departments,” he said.

Mr. Liju said the additional affidavit would incorporate the relevant legal aspects and it would not be appropriate for him to disclose its contents before it was submitted to the High Court.

Meanwhile, Excise department sources said the Union Tourism Ministry had informed the government that the star classification applications of 32 hotels in Keralam had been rejected.