Police should have been consulted on extending bar timings, says Delhi high court

According to a Delhi Police order dated December 10, 2020, bars and restaurants in the Capital can only remain open until 1am.

New Delhi: The Delhi high court directed both the excise and police commissioners to constitute a consultative group to examine the feasibility of extending the operational timing of places of public entertainment up to 3am, adding that Delhi Police should have been consulted by the state government before fixing the timings.

Delhi high court. (File Photo)

The court rejected the contention of the state government’s standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi that they had powers under the Delhi Excise Rules, 2010, to specify the hours when liquor can be sold and said the law mandates a “joint and consultative deliberation between the authorities of the excise department and the Delhi Police”.

Justice Yashwant Varma said that while the Excise Act and the Rules, 2010, may empower the excise commissioner to prescribe the operational timing of liquor vends, bars or any other establishment that serves liquor to the public are clearly within the ambit of the Delhi Police as the operation of such outlets has a bearing on the security of the public and the maintenance of law and order.

“It would therefore appear that the Delhi Police was neither consulted before the inclusion of the prescription with respect to timing in the Excise Policy nor was the order passed by the first respondent on December 10, 2020, taken into consideration. It would have been expedient for the excise authorities as well as the Government of National Capital Territory (GNCTD) to have elicited the views of the Delhi Police before holding out that bars in NCR would be permitted to operate till 3am,” the court noted in its Friday order, which was made available on Monday.

A Delhi Police order dated December 10, 2020, said that bars and restaurants in the Capital can only remain open until 1am.

The court’s order came during the hearing of a plea by the National Restaurant Association of India seeking directions to restrain the Delhi Police from interfering with the operation of restaurants and bars till 3am.

On the last date of the hearing (June 2), the court had sought to know from the Delhi government whether they had consulted with the police before tweaking the Excise Policy and allowing eateries and bars to remain open till 3am. It had also asked the state government counsel to take instructions on whether the stipulation in the Excise Policy was introduced bearing in mind the Delhi Police’s order dated December 10, 2020.

However, on Friday, after perusing a short affidavit in response to the queries, the court said that the response fails to deal with the queries which were addressed.

In its order, the court observed that while it does not intend to stand in the way of the Excise Department framing a policy or the exercise of power flowing from the Act and the Rules, it should be “necessarily have to tempered by and harmonised with the authority of the Delhi Police to regulate the operational timing of eating houses and places of public entertainment as conferred by the 1978 Act and the regulations”.

“Viewed in that backdrop it would be expedient to direct the excise commissioner as well as the commissioner of police to constitute a consultative group which may examine the feasibility of extending the operational timing of places of public entertainment up to 3am. The joint consultative group may complete the aforesaid exercise within a period of two weeks from today and its report be placed on the record of these proceedings,” the court said.

Opposing the petition, Delhi Police in a status report, had given the crime statistics for Delhi for 2021-22, along with the details of the drunken driving challans issued in the last two years and the number of road accidents.

The police had said that the issue of opening of bars and other places that serve liquor had an indelible connect with the issue of public order and it is for this reason that the outer limit has been prescribed as 1am, adding that it would be imprudent to increase their operational timing up to 3am.

The matter will next be heard on August 2.