City

The Allahabad High Court has instructed the Uttar Pradesh government to abstain from renewing the licence of a liquor shop near a school in Kanpur, following a petition from a five-year-old LKG student.

Atharva Dixit, considered the youngest petitioner in a public interest litigation (PIL) case in the country according to his lawyer, filed a plea seeking the relocation of the liquor shop and the prevention of granting or renewing its licence for the 2024-25 period. In its order dated May 2, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar stated, "Consequently, the writ petition filed by the petitioner is partly allowed. The respondents are restrained from granting/renewing the licence for the shop in question after the expiration of the current licence on March 31, 2025, i.e., for the financial year 2025-26 onwards."