Prashant Kumar Mishra ORDER
Prashant Kumar Mishra, J.
1. Challenge in this petition is to the appellate order dated 18-5-2018 (Annexure - P/1) passed by the Excise Commissioner, Chhattisgarh, in appeal No. REC 01/2018-19 dismissing the petitioner's appeal, which, in turn, was preferred against the order dated 28-3-2018 passed by the Licencing Authority i.e. the Collector (Excise), Raipur, to cancel the petitioner's FL-2 beer bar licence.
2. Facts of the case, as disclosed from the material on record, are that at the relevant time the petitioner was holding a licence in form FL-2 popularly known as beer bar licence to operate the said bar at his hotel named as 'Tandoor Bar'. The licence was granted to the petitioner for a period of one year ending on 31-3-2018. On 8-2-2018 a show cause notice was issued to the petitioner stating, inter alia, that on inspection of the bar on 23-1-2018 by the Assistant District Excise Officer certain irregularities were found regarding non-production of permit of the stock available at the bar and further that certain beer of different batch numbers other than the batch allotted in the permit, was found in the stock, attracting violation of terms of licence punishable under Section 39 (a) (c) of the Chhattisgarh Excise Act, 1915 (for short 'the Act, 1915'). The petitioner was instructed to show cause as to why action should not be taken under Rule 23 (1) of the Chhattisgarh Excise Settlement of Licences for Retail Sale of Country/Foreign Liquor Rules, 2002 (for short 'the Rules, 2002') read with Section 31 (b) of the Act, 1915.
3. Contesting the show cause notice the petitioner filed his reply stating that the permit was available in the licensed premises and that the liquor available in the stock was purchased from the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited. The stock seized by the Excise Officer was purchased from Santoshi Nagar Shop on 20-1-2018 bearing batch No. 119. The seller shop keeper was in a hurry, therefore, the batch number was not mentioned, which was later on inserted on 24-1-2018.
4. The Collector (Excise) was not satisfied with the explanation offered by the petitioner, therefore, the licence was cancelled on the ground that permit was not presented to the Divisional Flying Squad, Raipur, when raid/inspection was carried on 23-1-2018 and that the stock of liquor was having different batch number than the one purchased by the petitioner. This was in violation of condition No. 5 of the licence, therefore, the same being serious in nature the licence deserves to be cancelled. It was mentioned that on two previous occasions also the petitioner had committed serious violation of the terms of the licence firstly on 13-11-2017 when the petitioner was found to sale other variety of liquor than the one for which licence has been issued. Again on 20-12-2017 the petitioner was found to sale Symba Strong Beer by parcel from its counter, which was in violation of condition No. 2 of the licence because the licence is for sale of beer in open bottle in the restaurant itself. On the said occasion the petitioner was also found to violate the condition No. 6 and 22 for not producing account register and inspection book to the Excise Officer. For the first violation the petitioner was imposed fine of Rs. 10,000/- and for the second violation petitioner's licence was suspended for 7 days. Thus, he is habituated in violating the terms of licence. The order passed by the licencing officer has been affirmed by the Excise Commissioner under the order impugned.
5. Referring to the decision rendered by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Sukhlal Sen v Collector, Dist. Satna and Others MANU/MP/0044/1969 : AIR 1969........