Telangana High Court Grants State Final Opportunity To Respond To Petitions Against Alleged Closure Of Hookah Parlours

The Telangana High Court has granted the state government and the police officials a last chance to file their consolidated affidavit in a batch of petitions challenging the alleged decision to close down hookah parlours in various cities of the state.

“No further time will be granted, if no counter is placed on record, the Court will proceed without it and pass orders,” Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy told the authorities on Tuesday.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions by a bunch of cafes/ hookah parlours contending that the Police Officials were enforcing a “complete and illegal ban on their restaurants without reference to any regulation.”

“You are allowing bars and alcohol shops to run, but hookah parlour you have a problem? Close all alcohol shops, why do you want to differentiate? When you want to enforce directive principles, then you cannot be selective,” the bench observed.

Government Pleader Santosh Kumar argued that the smoke inhaled by one person, passively affects everybody around him. He submitted that all cafes serving hookah were just registered as restaurants, and if they want to continue the sale and service of tobacco products, sufficient disclaimer should be provided as prescribed by the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COPTA).

Advocate Omar Pasha, a counsel representing one of the petitioners, contended that for months now, the owners of the cafes have been incurring losses due to cafes being shut indefinitely. He argued that the cafes in question were wrongly being labelled as ‘hookah parlours’ when it is just one of the services they provide.

The writ petitions challenge the press release issued by the Commissioners of Police of various districts, asking all places serving hookah to shut down voluntarily, failing which all shops would be sealed as illegal and issued with lack of jurisdiction. The petitions seek directions to restrain the Station House Officers of various localities from interfering with the business of the petitioners.

The petitioners have submitted that hookahs are being served only in designated smoking zones, in restaurants that have a seating capacity of over 30 individuals, in accordance with section 4 of COTPA. It has also been argued that a single bench has already that hookah parlours are allowed to function, if a separate place is allotted for smoking, in such a manner that smoke should not passively affect the others who visit these cafes. 

Lawyers appearing for petitioners: Habeeb Adubakar Alhamed, Omar A Pasha,T. Prasanna Kumar, Rajesh Maddy, Pranay Bahuguna, Meesalal Vinod Kumar, Mohammed Abdul Quadeer, K. Muralidhar, Mohammed Asifuddin, Dida Vijaya Kumar.

Title: M/s Life of Coffee vs. State of Telangana and ors.