The Bombay High Court on Tuesday expressed anger over how a petition filed the previous day by NCB’s former Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede was listed for hearing without the court permitting the same. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar refused to grant hearing on the petition, saying there was no urgency.
Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer, filed a petition on Monday challenging an order passed by the Thane Excise Collector cancelling the liquor license of his restaurant and bar in Navi Mumbai, and sought restoration of the cancelled license. “How come this petition is listed today when it was not mentioned before us on Monday? We have not allowed it,” Justice Patel said.
Wankhede’s advocate Veena Thadani told the court that they were waiting to mention the matter on Monday, but the court staff said it would be listed on Tuesday. The bench then warned the court staff from doing so. “A poor person files a petition and their matter is never taken up for hearing, and when an influential person files a petition, their plea is listed for hearing immediately,” Justice Jamdar said.
“What is the grave urgency? What heavens will fall?” the bench asked. Advocate Feroze Bharucha, appearing for Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik, who is a respondent in the case, sought a copy of the petition and time to respond to the same.
“There are allegations and false statements made against the minister,” Bharucha said. The court then said it was not going to grant any urgent hearing to the petition and that it will be taken up for hearing in due course.
“Just because you two (Wankhede and Malik) are having a war of words in the media, we have to grant urgent hearing?” Justice Patel asked. Wankhede in the petition claimed that actions initiated against him were vindictive as he had arrested Malik’s son-in-law in a drugs case when he was heading the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) unit. He further claimed that the action was taken against him by the state Excise Department and the police under “political pressure”.
As per the petition, the license was granted in October 1997 and was renewed time and again till 2021. “After my client (Wankhede) arrested minister Nawab Malik’s son-in-law in a drugs case, the minister wrote a letter in November 2021 to the Thane Excise Collector raising questions on the license,” Wankhede’s advocate Vishal Thadani said.
Pursuant to the letter, an inquiry was initiated and three show-cause notices were issued to Wankhede. A hearing was given and the license was then cancelled. Hence, he (Wankhede) has moved the high court challenging the cancellation and to seek restoration of the license, Thadani said.
Wankhede had appealed to the state Excise Commissioner, who apparently orally refused to stay the order. In his petition, Wankhede said he cannot be blamed for not disclosing his age, since the rules do not prescribe the age while applying for the FL III (foreign liquor) license, and the application form does not provide for disclosure of the applicant’s age.
According to Wankhede’s plea, FL III licence is granted for one year at a time and is an annual contract between the individual and the state and hence, the licence granted in 1997 came to an end in 1998. Wankhede in his plea said he turned 18 on December 14, 1997 and thereafter, the licence has been renewed for 23 years every year.
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