Good news for tipplers
The Kerala High court order, which stated that no license was required to serve liquor at a private function organised at an individual’s residence, came as a big relief for boozers in the state.
The High Court gave the ruling as a reply to a plea filed by an individual who wanted to serve liquor at a baptism function to be held at his house.
Recalling his previous experience, when he had to pay Rs 50,000 to serve liquor during the engagement ceremony of his daughter, the petitioner sought protection from excise and police harassment. He argued that one’s own house would not come within the ambit of public space under Section 15(c) of the Kerala Abkari Act.
The state, on the other hand, argued that if the permission was given, it will lead to widespread misuse of alcohol and ultimately lead to anarchy.
The court, while appreciating the petitioner’s contentions, held that no license was required to serving liquor at a private function in one’s own house. Citing the importance of hospitality in Indian culture, it even quoted a Sanskrit verse: Athithi devo Bhava.
BJP stung as leader arrested with black money
The state unit of BJP, which is desperately trying to make a mark in the political scene of Kerala, faced a severe embarrassment this week. One of its leaders of demonetisation campaign in the state—Rakesh Ezhachery—was arrested with several notes of demonetised currency and machines and ink that is commonly used to print counterfeit notes. When he was arrested from his residence, the BJP leader had with him Rs 1.37 lakh worth fake currency.
The state unit of BJP had been promoting Ezhachery as one of the promising young faces from the state and his photographs were displayed along with the senior leaders of the party including that of the BJP president during the awareness campaign against black money. The police says that Rakesh and his brother had been running a counterfeit currency unit for quite some time.
The incident has put the party in such a bad light that none of its leaders were ready to respond about it. The anti-BJP trollers had a helluva time with all social media platforms being flooded with trolls mocking the state and national unit of BJP and its controversial demonetisation drive.
Massive cleaning drive
As there seems to be no respite from the multiplying fever cases in the state, the government has appealed to the public to join the government's programme to check further spread of the fever epidemic. This decision was taken at an all-party meet chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The plan is to announce a three-day sanitation drive from June 27, which plans to remove the garbage piles and clean the mosquito-breeding sources. The state has so far reported 125 deaths from various fevers in the last few month and over two lakh people have been affected.
Bobbitisation case gets murkier
The ongoing bobitisation case where a young woman allegedly chopped off the genitals of a 'swami' gets murkier by the day. After the 23-year-old took a u-turn from her first statement and withdrew the allegations against the godman, that he had been molesting her since the age of fifteen, she approached the court seeking a CBI probe into the case as she had lost faith in the police.
The law student made this move after one Ayyappadas, allegedly her lover, approached the court with a habeas corpus petition saying she was under house arrest and forced to retract her statement.
The court, however, rejected the plea from the girl and instead pulled her up for frequent changes in stance. It also allowed the police to conduct lie-detection and brain mapping tests on her.
The court also rejected the bail plea of Swami Theerthapada alias Sreehari.
