On Friday, the Bombay High Court permitted the sale of liquor in Mumbai once the Lok Sabha election results are announced on June 4, describing it as a "bar-friendly measure."

A vacation bench of Justices NR Borkar and Somasekhar Sundaresan ruled that the ban imposed by the city Collector on the sale of liquor in hotels, restaurants, bars, and permit rooms will no longer be effective after the election results are declared in Mumbai.

This decision came in response to petitions filed by the Association of Owners of Hotels, Restaurants, Permit Rooms and Bars (AHAR) challenging the orders by the Collectors of Mumbai city and suburban districts, which had declared June 4 as a dry day.

The petitions argued that liquor sales should be allowed once the election results are announced.

Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan informed the bench that the Collector for Mumbai suburban district had already issued a letter modifying the earlier notification, declaring June 4 as a dry day. However, the Mumbai city collector had not issued a similar modification.

The bench highlighted the inconsistency, noting that people in the city suburbs could purchase alcohol after the results, while those in the city could not. The high court remarked, "Let's work it out. There has to be some parity."

Six parliamentary seats in Mumbai were contested on May 20, with results to be declared on June 4 along with the nationwide vote count.

Advocate Veena Thadani, representing AHAR, cited previous high court orders in similar cases where the restriction on alcohol sales was lifted after the declaration of results.

Thadani argued that vote counting typically concludes by the afternoon, making an all-day restriction unnecessary and detrimental to alcohol businesses.

The city collector, however, stated that the order was based on the Election Commission of India's directive, which is why it hadn't been modified.

The bench questioned, "How can one collector modify an order and the other cannot?" and humorously noted whether city residents would need to go to the suburbs to drink and what would happen if they returned to the city after consuming alcohol.

Ultimately, the bench ordered that the dry day restriction in Mumbai would end following the declaration of the election results.