What is the grave urgency? HC on urgent hearing of Wankhede's plea on bar license

Mumbai, Feb 22: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday slammed the development over how a petition filed the previous day by NCB's former Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede was listed for hearing without the court permitting the same.

The court said that there was no urgency. "How come this petition is listed today when it was not mentioned before us on Monday? We have not allowed it," Justice Patel said. Wankhede's advocate Veena Thadani told the court that they were waiting to mention the matter on Monday, but the court staff said it would be listed on Tuesday.

The division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar then warned the court staff from doing so. "A poor person files a petition and their matter is never taken up for hearing, and when an influential person files a petition, their plea is listed for hearing immediately," Justice Jamdar said.

2008 batch IRS officer Wankhede filed a petition on Monday challenging an order passed by the Thane Excise Collector cancelling the liquor license of his restaurant and bar in Navi Mumbai, and sought restoration of the cancelled license. "What is the grave urgency? What heavens will fall?" the bench asked.

Advocate Feroze Bharucha, appearing for Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik, who is a respondent in the case, sought a copy of the petition and time to respond to the same. "There are allegations and false statements made against the minister," Bharucha said.

"Just because you two (Wankhede and Malik) are having a war of words in the media, we have to grant urgent hearing?" Justice Patel asked.

In the petition, Wankhede claimed that he was targeted for arresting Malik's son-in-law in a drugs case when he was heading the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) unit and the action take by the Excise Department and police were under "political pressure."

Going by the petition, the license was granted in October 1997 and was renewed time and again till 2021. "After my client (Wankhede) arrested minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law in a drugs case, the minister wrote a letter in November 2021 to the Thane Excise Collector raising questions on the license," Wankhede's advocate Vishal Thadani said.