High Court of Lucknow has summoned the record of all licences granted for sale of country liquor in UP by the Mayawati and Akhilesh government in the past nine years.
The High Court has also taken cognizance of the accusation that “shell companies were set up by the beneficiaries to evade relevant rules of the state liquor policy”. It has also sought details of the list of directors of companies owned by the late Ponty Chadha. The petitioner represented by senior lawyer Mohan Jain has alleged that, as per rules framed by the government, such licence(s) cannot be granted to a company which is also a manufacturer.
Referring to four companies which were granted licences for country liquor, Jain contended that the said companies were controlled by Chadha owned group and that the companies represented a shell company.
Jain argued that the grant of licence was a clear case of “discrimination”. And if licences were to be granted in violation of rules, then other manufacturers and producers should also be considered to participate in a “transparent” manner, he added.
Taking note of the accusations, the division bench of Lucknow High Court said: “We find that there are serious allegations in respect of monopoly being created in favour r of a selected few and that shell companies being setup by the manufacturers of liquors only to avoid the violation of Rule3-A(7) of the terms and conditions of the auction.”