Darjeeling, December 25 (Siliguri Chronicle) – Glenary’s, the iconic Darjeeling restaurant, has been permitted to resume liquor sales during the Christmas and New Year period following an interim order passed by the Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri circuit bench on Wednesday.
District excise officials had suspended Glenary’s bar licence for three months from December 9, citing irregularities in accounts, storage of liquor at unauthorised premises and deviations from approved plans for alcohol storage. The authorities also invoked Section 239 of the West Bengal Excise (Foreign Liquor) Rules, 1998, which governs permission for live music in bars, and halted live band performances at the establishment.
Justice Amrita Sinha, in an interim order passed on Wednesday, stayed the suspension of Glenary’s bar licence and permitted the sale of liquor at the establishment from Wednesday until January 12, 2026.
“The respondent authority is directed to de-seal the storage which has been sealed by the authority forthwith latest by 5 p.m. today (24.12. 2025),” the order stated.
The Glenary’s management, which had approached the court challenging the liquor clampdown, did not press for permission to resume live band performances at the restaurant. As a result, the court limited its interim relief to the resumption of liquor sales.
The court, however, directed that every ounce of liquor sold must be properly accounted for.
Nearly 150 years old, Glenary’s houses a bakery, restaurant and resto-bar within the same building, with liquor served at both the restaurant and the resto-bar.
The court in its order observed: “There is no reason as to why the fun and merry making festival spirit be dampened by non-serving of liquor in the restaurant premises. The sale of liquor will also amount to generation of revenue to the State.”
The suspension of Glenary’s bar licence came a day after Ajoy Edwards, who, along with his family, owns the iconic eatery and also heads the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF), had played a pivotal role in the construction of a bridge named “Gorkhaland” in Darjeeling.
Edwards had alleged that the suspension of the bar licence was politically motivated. The authorities, however, rejected the claim, maintaining that the inquiry into the matter had begun in October.
Edwards said: “The state government even approached the division bench so that I do not get a relief on my appeal , but invain. All this move by the state government for a bar.”
