Liquor vend in a Convenience Shopping Centre is not barred where planning text permits retail use and excise law adds no prohibition.

Planning provisions in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 treat Local Shopping Centres and Convenience Shopping Centres as retail commercial nodes, and the permitted uses include retail shopping and allied services. On that basis, the text states that a liquor vend is not expressly barred in a Convenience Shopping Centre because the definition of retail shop is wide enough to cover liquor sales. The Delhi Excise regime is described as regulating distance from educational institutions, religious places and large hospitals, without imposing a prohibition tied to residential neighbourhoods or Convenience Shopping Centres. The licences were therefore not illegal, though the authorities were directed to consider a framework to reduce nuisance near residential areas.

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Issues: Whether a liquor vend is permissible in a Convenience Shopping Centre under the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 and the Delhi Excise law, and whether the impugned licences were illegal.

Analysis: The relevant planning provisions for commercial areas in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 classify Local Shopping Centres and Convenience Shopping Centres as retail commercial nodes, and the permitted activities in both include retail shopping, bank, ATM, restaurant and allied service uses. The definition of retail shop is wide enough to cover sale of liquor to consumers, and the plan does not expressly prohibit liquor retail in a Convenience Shopping Centre. The Delhi Excise regime regulates proximity to educational institutions, religious places and large hospitals, but contains no prohibition tied to residential neighbourhoods or to Convenience Shopping Centres as such. The distinction sought to be drawn between Local Shopping Centres and Convenience Shopping Centres was not supported by the planning text placed before the Court.

Conclusion: A liquor vend in a Convenience Shopping Centre is not prohibited on the basis of the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 or the Delhi Excise law, and the licences in question were not illegal.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the liquor vends failed, though the authorities were directed to formulate an appropriate framework to curb nuisance around such vends in residential neighbourhoods.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the governing planning instrument permits retail commercial use and does not expressly exclude liquor retail, and the excise regime imposes no relevant prohibition, the licence cannot be struck down merely on a presumed restriction.

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