LKG student moves HC against liquor shop near his school in UP, court takes action

The Allahabad High Court has directed the state government to refrain from renewing the licence of a liquor shop located near a school in Kanpur after a five-year-old student of the school approached the court, seeking directions to relocate the store. In his PIL, Atharva Dixit said as the liquor shop remains open throughout the day and is a meeting point of “anti-social elements”, it is creating disturbance to the students of the school.

A five-year-old LKG student, with the help of his family in Kanpur, recently filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Allahabad High Court seeking removal of a liquor shop near his school. He stated people created ruckus there after consuming alcohol. The court has directed UP government to refrain from renewing the liquor shop’s licence that will expire next year.

The petitioner also sought directions to the state authorities to refrain from granting the country-made liquor shop in Azad Nagar in Kanpur a fresh or renewed licence for 2024-25, as, according to him, the distance between the liquor shop and his school is only 30 metres.

A five-year-old Atharva Dixit, an LKG student of Seth MR Jaipuria School in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur took his plight to the Allahabad High Court to address the issue of a liquor shop situated close to his school. The matter, which had been a cause of distress for Atharva and other residents of the locality, saw a resolution following the court’s intervention.

5(4)(a) of the Uttar Pradesh Number and Location of Excise Shop Rules, 1968. The proviso to this rule stipulates a distance of 50 metres between a liquor shop and any place of worship, school, hospital, or residential colony.

Further, if any such place comes into existence after the establishment of the shop, the provisions of this rule do not apply. Since the shop in question has been operational for over 30 years and the school was established in 2019, it was submitted that there is n

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar restrained the state excise authorities from granting/renewing the licence of the shop in question after expiry of the present licence on March 31, 2025, i.e. for the financial year 2025-26 onwards.