From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP leader advocate Ashwini Upadhyay known for filing the public interest litigations (PILs) was in a shock on Friday when Delhi High Court pulled him up on his plea to ban liquor sale in Delhi, asking to disclose “how many petitions have you got typed in your drawer” and refused to issue a notice while adjourning the matter to July 4.
A Bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna also said it will club together all his PILs on that day, asking counsel for other sides to accumulate his petitions as “we will see what is to be done.”
“We will keep it all on October 1 and see in which notices are to be issued …” the Court remarked.
Upadhyay pleaded that “our right to health is being violated” and sought warning labels on liquor bottles in the interim, for which the Bench refused to issue notice.
The PIL has sought a direction to the Delhi government to prohibit the production, distribution and consumption of intoxicating drinks and drugs in the national capital.
The plea said that rather than taking steps to prohibit/control the consumption and production of liquor and drugs, the State government has, in the last seven years, made Delhi a “Liquor Capital of India.”
This, Upadhyay claimed, violates the rights of the people under Article 21 of the Constitution.
“Petitioner submits that Delhi has a total 280 municipal wards and until 2015, there were only 250 liquor shops i.e. on an average, one liquor shop in every municipal ward and 30 wards without a single liquor shop. However, under the New Liquor Policy, State government is planning to drastically increase the number of liquor shops and it would be around three liquor shops in every municipal ward, which is not only arbitrary and irrational but also brazenly offends rule of law as well as right to health guaranteed under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution,” the petition stated.
