A tourist drinking beer at a restaurant in Kovalam in south Kerala on September 9, 2014 (Agence France-Presse)
Kerala bar owners today decided to move Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court order which upheld the state government's liquor policy confining bar licenses only to five star hotels.
The Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association on Wednesday held a meeting, a day after Kerala HC upheld the state government's decision, and decided to move the apex court.
Emerging from the meeting, Kerala Bar Owners Association President Rajkumar Unni said they were waiting for the copy of the court order and would move the Supreme Court.
A Division Bench of the high court, comprising Justices K T Sankaran and Babu Mathew P Joseph, on Tuesday upheld the government's liquor policy framed last year and subsequent amendments granting licenses to beer and wine parlours.
Delivering the judgment, the bench had said there was nothing to offend fundamental rights or to term arbitrary or irrational about the liquor policy.
It also set aside the ruling of the single judge permitting bars in four-star and heritage hotels.
The order which came into effect from last night itself resulted in the shut down of 300 bars below the prescribed category.