Chennai

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that tenders have been finalised for 2,350 bars attached to the Tasmac liquor outlets and bids are pending for only eight districts due to administrative reasons.

R Shunmugasundaram, Advocate-General, made the submission before Justice C Saravanan while the judge was hearing a petition by Tamil Nadu Tasmac Bar Owners Association. The petitioner challenged the government’s decision calling fresh tenders to allocate bars.

“Many of us have already got the No-Objection Certificate from the landowners and established the bars. The government has not issued new applications to the people who are already running the bars,” senior counsel ARL Sundaresan, appearing for the petitioner, submitted. When the AG contended that the tenders for 2,530 bars had been finalised, the petitioners countered that the bars were not in function for around 15 months due to the pandemic situation. The petitioner prayed for extending the licence to run the bars attached with the Tasmac shops. “The new tender application has put several conditions which did not exist before,” the petitioner added.

On recording the submission, the judge directed the government to file the tender conditions as well as the previous and current tender applications before the court. The matter was adjourned to Friday.

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