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A boutique chambers practising before the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka. Under the counsel of Advocate B. N. Shetty — at the Bar since 1981 — we represent distillers, bottlers, hoteliers and the licensed trade in matters of excise duty, licensing, regulation & constitutional review.
Shetty Associates is a chambers practice in Bengaluru devoted to a single, often misunderstood corner of the law: the regulation of liquor & intoxicants under the Karnataka Excise Act, 1965, the rules framed thereunder, and the constitutional questions they so frequently throw up.
For more than four decades we have advised distilleries, breweries, bottling units, hotels & bars, retail vendors, clubs, military canteens and individual licensees through licensing applications, show-cause notices, departmental hearings, statutory appeals, and writ proceedings before the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka.
The work is technical, the consequences commercial, and the proceedings — when they reach Court — often turn on a careful reading of a single rule. We prepare every brief with that in mind.
In recent years, our research and drafting workflow has been quietly modernised — augmented, where it aids precision, by the considered use of artificial intelligence. The brief-by-brief attention that defines the chambers remains unchanged.
"Forty-five years in a single field of law teaches you that the answer is almost always already on the page — one simply has to read it well."
Sri B. N. Shetty was enrolled with the Bar Council of Karnataka in 1981 and, since 1985, has maintained an exclusive practice in excise & liquor licensing law before the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka. He has appeared in matters under nearly every provision of the Karnataka Excise Act and the rules framed thereunder, with a particular emphasis on licence issuance, departmental adjudication, and constitutional challenges to executive action.
His counsel is sought by distilleries, breweries, microbreweries, four- and five-star hotels, restaurants, clubs, wholesale vendors and retail liquor shops across Karnataka. He represents both individual licensees and trade associations.
A representative — though not exhaustive — list of the matters in which the chambers acts. Each line refers to a section of the Karnataka Excise Act, 1965 or rules framed thereunder, and includes appearances before the licensing authorities, the Excise Commissioner, statutory tribunals and the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka.
Each of the following is a reported judgment of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka in which the chambers has appeared as counsel. Summaries are necessarily abbreviated; the judgments themselves are available in the public domain.
Connected writ petitions on behalf of a Belgaum partnership firm holding CL-2 retail vend licences (Durga Wine Shop), concerning the induction of legal heirs into the licensee firm and the transfer of the licences following the death of a partner.
Writ challenge by a CL-2 partnership licensee (Koramangala, Bengaluru) to orders of the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal and the Excise authorities arising from departmental adjudication; heard alongside the connected petition in M/s Shankar Wines v. Commissioner of Excise.
Writ appeals arising from a disputed transfer of two CL-9 bar-and-restaurant licences on the basis of a registered Will, following the death of the licence-holder; the Court declined to disturb the licences pending civil-court determination of the testamentary dispute.
Writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution on behalf of a Ramanagara licensee against the Commissioner of Excise and the Deputy Commissioner of Ramanagara District (Reported as 2023:KHC:27469).
Reported judgments are reproduced in abbreviated form. Full citations and orders are available on the official record of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka.
“The Excise Act is not the longest statute in our books, but it is among the most consequential — the livelihood of an entire trade, and the revenue of the State, both turn upon how its few provisions are read on a given day.”
Our chambers stand on the 2nd Main Road of Malleshwaram, at Vinayaka Circle — central Bengaluru, well-connected to the Hon'ble High Court and to the city's commercial districts. Consultations are by prior appointment, in person at the chambers or by secure video conference for clients outside the city, and matters are taken up on bona fide professional enquiry.