A tourist drinking beer at a restaurant in Kovalam in south Kerala on September 9, 2014 (Agence France-Presse photo)
For a drink in Kerala, you can go to a heritage or luxury hotel but nearly 700 bars across the state will have to shut down immediately, the High Court today said, backing the state government's "no-liquor" policy.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had, in August, announced that bars across the state will have to shut down, adding that only five-star hotels would be allowed to keep serving booze and even they will have go dry on Sundays.
"The challenge against the new policy...fails," the court said in its verdict on a clutch of petitions filed by bar owners.
The new liquor policy of the Kerala government, aiming to achieve complete prohibition in the state in a phased manner, had said liquor would be served only in 21 five-star hotel bars, and all other bars in the state should be closed down from September 12.
In a small reprieve, the court has allowed bars in 62 heritage, four-star and five-star hotels to serve liquor from Thursday.
Bar owners had moved court against the government's decision, contending that it was taken in 'haste' and was discriminatory.
"It is an unfair order, we will appeal against it," G.Sudhiesh Kumar, President of Kerala Hotel & Restaurant Association, told NDTV today.
The Supreme Court, which had also been approached by an association of bar owners earlier, had said that the exemption to five-stars appeared illogical.
According to the government's plans, state-run liquor stores, where men queue up for their daily fix, will be phased out at a rate of 10 per cent a year for the next decade, leaving a big hole in the state coffers after alcohol taxes and fees generated more than $1 billion or Rs 6,000 crore in the 2012-13 financial year.
Bar owners who have taken the government to court say if there is an alcohol ban, tourists will start opting for other regional destinations - perhaps the beaches of nearby Goa or Sri Lanka. A recent survey from travel portal Holiday IQ.com, which polled 5,000 Indians, showed 58 percent of the respondents will change their travel plans because of the new no-boozing policy.
But there is little denial of an alcohol problem in Kerala, which has the highest consumption levels in India.