Mumbai: The Collector, Mumbai city will decide on June 10 on the suspension of license of the Drumbeat bar and restaurant, which is owned by Madhvi Bindumadhav Thackeray, eldest daughter-in-law of Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray. The license was suspended on May 27 by the Collector for alleged several violations of license conditions.
The high court heard a petition by Madhvi Thackeray against the "illegal and high-handedness" of authorities, for shutting down bars and restaurants in Mumbai following the Porsche car accident in Pune on May 19 which killed two persons.
Madhavi's husband, Bindumadhav, had died in a car accident in 1996 and is survived by Madhavi and their two children. Madhavi, who had left the Thackeray residence with her two children after her husband's death, is the proprietor of the Drumbeat Bar and Restaurant at Tardeo in South Mumbai.
Additional government pleader Abhay Patki informed a vacation bench of Justices Nitin Borkar and Kamal Khata that the Collector had suspended the license as there were severe violations of license conditions. However, he said that the Collector had issued show cause notice to the petitioner and would give a hearing and decide on the issue on June 10.
The petitioner contended that on May 24 an inspector from the excise department visited the place and found four breaches — women waitresses were allowed to work in the licensed premises after the prescribed time, liquor was sold to customers without valid permits, copy of cash memos were not produced at the time of inspection and liquor was served outside the permit room area.
Her advocate Veena Thadani said that following the inspection, the collector suspended the license on May 27. However, she claimed that the alleged breaches could be compounded.
Madhvi then preferred an appeal before the Commissioner of State Excise, but he orally refused to stay the suspension order. Hence she approached the high court. Her plea contended that the place had been sufferig huge losses since its closure.
Patki said that the Offence found was of serious nature and therefor license was suspended. The Collector has kept the issue for hearing on June 10 and will decide on it on the same day. In another plea by Gopal Ashram in Thane, the government pleader said that the Collector shall hear and decide the matter on June 7.
