Hyderabad: Taking serious note of allegations that a large number illegal liquor shops are running in Visakhapatnam, the AP High Court, on Thursday, sought a report from the superintendent of Prohibition and Excise department, Visakhapatnam within three weeks.
A division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar directed the Excise superintendent to visit each and every spot personally where the liquor shops were running and to find out how many of them were running on shop and off shop and how many of them were operating without valid licenses. They were directed to submit a report to the court in a sealed cover.
The Bench also directed the district police superintendent to enquire into illegal breweries and the source of supply of illegal country made liquor to the shops and to take action immediately in accordance to the law so that the illegal breweries were shut immediately.
The Bench also directed the commissioner of police of Visakhapatnam and district police superintendent to inspect the shops in their limits and to file separate reports in sealed covers to the court within three weeks.
The authorities will have to explain their steps in their reports apart from indicating owners of the shop who were operating without valid permits.
The Bench was dealing with a petition by G. Eswaramma, a resident of Visakhapatnam who moved the Public Interest Litigation alleging that the Excise authorities had been allowing many belt shops in the district, more particularly at Laxminagar and Gopalapatnam areas in the city, and were also allowing consumption of liquor on streets, which was causing hardships to people in general and women in particular.
