‘No law against unmarried woman, man occupying same hotel room’

Justice M S Ramesh, before whom the plea moved by Mypreferred Transformation and Hospitality Private Limited came up, said, “While live-in-relationship of two adults is not deemed to be an offence, terming the occupation of hotel room by an unmarried couple, will not attract a criminal offence. While that being so, the extreme step of sealing the premises on the ground that an unmarried couple was occupying the premises, is totally illegal in the absence of any law prohibiting the same.”

He also set aside the contention that liquor bottles were found in the room occupied by the guests, and as the premises does not possess the licence to serve or sell liquor inside, the action of sealing it was initiated.

“If the petitioner (hotel) had not sold or served any liquor to the guests, who were occupying their respective rooms and the guests had consumed the liquor brought by themselves, I am unable to comprehend as to how the same could be considered as impermissible,” Justice Ramesh said while citing the Tamil Nadu Liquor (Possession for Personal Consumption) Rules, 1996 that permits any individual person to possess various types of liquor inspecified quantities.

Further, regarding the submission of the Additional Public Prosecutor that the premises did not possess a building licence in Form ‘D’ of the Revenue department and that the booking registers were not properly maintained, Justice Ramesh said, “Assuming that such lacuna were discovered by the authorities, these can only be termedas infirmities.

These require to be addressed by calling for explanation from the petitioner and thereafter take further course of action, thereby adhering to the principles of natural justice.”

As per the case, on June 26, 2019, a search was conducted on the premises by a team from the office of the tahsildar and the Peelamedu police station. During the search, it is stated that certain liquor bottles were found inside one of the rooms occupied by the guests and in one such room, two adults-male and female who were not married to each other-were staying. The premises reportedly came to be sealed by the team without any written order. This prompted the petitioner to file the present writ petition.

The Additional Public Prosecutor, appearing for the Coimbatore administration, submitted that the tahsildar, Coimbatore (South) had informed the Inspector of Peelamedu police station that the petitioner’s premises had not obtained Form ‘D’ and that without details of the guests in the booking registers, were permitting illegal activities by the guests.

In view of the objections from the neighbouring womenfolk, action had been requested to be taken against the petitioner, the prosecutor added. He also produced reports, both in social as well as print media, indicating that the said hotel had permitted unmarried couples to stay in the rooms.