5-Year-Old Moves High Court Over Liquor Shop Near His School

Kanpur: A five-year-old kindergarten student is perturbed by the presence of a liquor shop near his school.

So much so that Atharv Dixit, the schoolkid, has moved the Allahabad High Court complaining about how it was affecting students.

In a public interest litigation (PIL) filed through his advocate father Prasoon Dixit, Atharv said that the liquor shop was “affecting the daily life of his fellow students and residents living nearby.”

The petition also stated that the shop was “infamous” as a meeting place for anti-social persons.

“Everybody sees the drunkards moving around their school and talking in filthy language,” the petition claimed.

The petitioner approached his father when the situation became unbearable.

The child’s advocate argued that renewal of licence of the liquor shop – done after the Seth MR Jayapuriya School was established — was illegitimate.

Atharv named the Chief Secretary of Excise Department, Excise Commissioner of Lucknow, DM (Licensing Authority) Kanpur Nagar, Excise Officer Kanpur, and Liquor Shop Operator Gyanendra Kumar in the petition.

The High Court questioned how the Excise department renewed the licence when the school was already in operation, and sought a response from it.

Dixit senior had earlier lodged a complaint on the Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS portal) to resolve the issue.

The Excise department had then said that the shop, 20 to 30 metres away from the school premises, has been in operation for 30 years, while the school – from KG to class IX — was established in 2019.

The quoted a Supreme Court order which said that no shop should be allowed to run in a radius of 100 metres from a place of worship, school, hospital, factory or to the entrance of a bazar or a residential colony.

The next date of hearing has been set for March 13.