A five-year-old student has approached the Allahabad High Court over a liquor shop near his school in Kanpur. In a public interest litigation or PIL filed through his father, the student said the shop was "affecting the daily life of his fellow students and the residents living nearby".
The child's advocate argued that the license renewal of the liquor shop, which occurred after the school was established, was "illegitimate".
Atharv, the petitioner, is a kindergarten student at Seth MR Jayapuriya School in Azad Nagar. Through his advocate father Prasoon Dixit, Atharv has named the Chief Secretary of the Excise Department, Excise Commissioner of Lucknow, DM (Licensing Authority) Kanpur Nagar, Excise Officer Kanpur, and Liquor Shop Operator Gyanendra Kumar in the petition.
The petition also alleged that the shop was "infamous as a meeting place for the anti-social persons". "Everybody see the drunkards moving around their school and talking in fithy language," it added.
The petitioner allegedly told his father about the situation when it "became unbearable".
The High Court, during a hearing yesterday, sought a response from the Excise Department regarding the matter. The Court has questioned how the department renewed the license when the school was already in operation.
The school, which runs classes from kindergarten to Class 9, has nearly 475 students.
Prasoon Dixit, the petitioner's father, had earlier lodged a complaint on the Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS portal)- an integrated system for complaint resolution in Uttar Pradesh - over the issue. Then, the excise department responded that the shop was nearly 20 to 30 metres away from the school premises. The response also mentioned that the shop has been in operation for the past 30 years, while the school was established in 2019.
The court's Lucknow bench, quoting a Supreme Court order, said that "no shop should be allowed to run in a radius of 100 meters from a place of worship, school, hospital, factory or to the entrance of a bazar or a residential colony".
The case will be next heard on March 13. Meanwhile, the entire city is buzzing with discussions about this case.
With inputs from Arun Agarwal.
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