Teachers By-election: liquor ban now only on election and results day

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High court on Wednesday has revoked the ban on sale of liquor from February 14 till February 16 in lieu of the by-election of the Teachers Constituency in the State Legislative Council.

The Ban is effective only from 6.00 am on February 16,the day of elections and from 6.00 am on February 20, the day of results.

Bars and Breweries have reopened across the city for Valentines day. This comes after the Deputy Commissioner K A Dayanand ordered on February 4, stating that a ‘dry day’ in the city will be observed from February 14 to February 17.

This did not sit well with the hoteliers and the many breweries this city is home to. They claimed that this order would result in huge financial losses.

Based on the argument that around 16,000 cast votes in a 1.5 crore populated city, the single bench led by S R Krishna Kumar had taken cognizance of the hoteliers and ordered the ban be effective only on the days of voting and counting.

The Teachers By election is being conducted after incumbent council member Putanna had reportedly resigned just before Last May’s Assembly elections.

Puttanna, who had won the seat from a BJP ticket will now contest on a Congress seat. The BJP-JD(S) candidate will be A P Ranganath.