The Madras High Court has said that it cannot pass orders to close TASMAC outlets or bars in Tamil Nadu since it is a policy decision of the state government. The court was hearing a petition filed by one Silambarasan, an advocate from Chennai, who sought an order to close the bars across Tamil Nadu. In his petition, he claimed that the bars run by the state-owned Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) are becoming grounds for increasing illegal activities and causing several accidents in their vicinity. Currently, the bars in Tamil Nadu are closed due to the lockdown and only the outlets are open for business.
The plea was heard by a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and R Hemalatha, who said that it is not possible for the court to pass orders to close TASMAC outlets or bars since it is the policy decision of the government to run them. The bench also said that the closure of TASMAC outlets and bars cannot be claimed as a right and hence the petition cannot be heard.
Dismissing the plea, the justices also granted permission to the petitioner to file a fresh plea against illegal, unlicensed bars operating in Tamil Nadu.
The government of Tamil Nadu reopened TASMAC outlets in Chennai district on August 18 after they were closed as a part of the nationwide shutdown in March last week. Only 500 tokens are issued for the customers daily and the shops are functioning from 10 am to 7 pm every day. Around 650 outlets in the city are currently functional, except those in the containment zones.
In the rest of Tamil Nadu, TASMAC outlets have been functioning since July 2020. The outlets are operating on all days of the week except on Sundays, when a full lockdown is being implemented till August 31 across Tamil Nadu.
Considered an important source of revenue for the state exchequer, TASMAC’s annual revenue in the financial year 2019-20 crossed Rs 30,000 crore.