Hight Court allows restobar to operate in school vicinity

Observing that educational institutions must create students with strong moral values, the Bombay High Court allowed a liquor restaurant to operate within 150-400 meters of a school in Pune’s Junnar area.

The HC said the school shouldn’t feel that its quality of education is so weak that students would be influenced by such a kind of restaurant within the premises.

A bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni was hearing a plea filed by school management challenging the decision of the Maharashtra government allowing the liquor hotel to operate within 150-400 meters of the school.

The school management cited the initial order passed by the district collector disallowing the hotel to function on the ground that though the school’s main gate is some 450 meters away. Still, its additional gate is just 150 meters away from the site of the hotel.

The school contended because of such a hotel in its vicinity and that students might resort to wrong activities.

The bench noted the contentions and took into account that another hotel serving liquor has been functioning just 350 meters away from the school for more than a decade and that the school management has not taken any objection against it.

“The institution ought not to have formed such an opinion that the education being imparted by their educational institution was so fragile that the students would get easily influenced by a restaurant serving liquor in the vicinity,” Justice Kulkarni said.

He said that the quality of learning and inculcation of moral values in the children is standard. The institution ought not to worry.

The bench further said that it would be more imperative for educational institutions to create students with strong moral values to prepare them for life challenges.

“It is thus more important that an endeavour of an educational institution should be to impart such education, so that the basic human values and good virtues are inculcated in the students, to make them ideal citizens,” Justice Kulkarni observed.

The judge, accordingly, hoped that its words would fall on the receptive ears of the institution, and the institution creates a situation for itself, that it would feel proud of its students.