BENGALURU: The Karnataka government told the high court that there was no violation of Excise Rules in granting licence to Tonique, a liquor outlet on Kasturba Road in Bengaluru. The state government on July 29 submitted the report before the division bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice M I Arun, in support of its contention after conducting survey on July 23, as per the court’s order.
The State said that both the office of the DCP, Central Business District, and church are outside the 100 metre range from the liquor outlet. The survey revealed that the distance between the liquor shop and DCP’s office is 126.5 metre, and between liquor shop and church is 144 metre, the state said.
The petitioner A V Amarnathan, an advocate, filed the PIL alleging that the Excise Department granted license though the DCP office and church were within 100 metres of the liquor outlet and is violation of Excise Rules. The bench said following the report, nothing remains for consideration but as the petitioner-counsel was not present, it relisted the matter to August 20.