Hearing the PIL on Monday, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran issued notice to the government besides the Excise Commissioner, a cooperative sugar mill and the Blue Water Industries Co Ltd, the private company that has allegedly been granted the licence.

The public interest litigation was filed by Viney Kumar Mishra, the editor of an Allahabad-based magazine.

Mishra approached the Supreme Court after Uttar Pradesh state High Court declined to look into his plea saying he has no locus.

Contending that it was not necessary that only an affected party could file a public interest litigation, his counsel Vivek Goyal submitted: “In gross violation of its own policies, the UP government has granted the licence to the UP Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd along with the Blue Water Private Limited for supplying country-made and foreign liquor.”

The policy that licences could only be given to an apex cooperative society that had got prior experience in the field was illegally modified by the state government, he said.