Hyderabad, March 23: In yet another reversal of a decision taken by the Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government, the high court has ordered the revival of licences of all liquor shops in the state.

The government had terminated the licences of 7,350 liquor shops and sought fresh applications as part of a new excise policy to raise more revenue. It was planning to auction the licences all over again.

But a division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court yesterday directed the government to renew the licences of present owners as it had done for bar owners. ?There cannot be two yardsticks for liquor bars and liquor shops,? it ruled.

The new excise policy had come under the scanner last month when a single-judge bench of the high court, led by L. Narasimha Reddy, issued a stay on the termination of the liquor shop licences. Yesterday, the division bench rejected the state government?s appeal against the stay.

Stung by the court verdict, the sixth in a row against it, the 10-month-old Rajasekhar Reddy government nevertheless promised to abide by it.

The government?s proposal to reserve seats for minorities in jobs and education was among the earlier decisions shot down by the court.

Bowing to the latest ruling, agriculture minister N. Raghuveera Reddy said the government has decided to extend the licences for the time being and will also issue fresh licences for 500 more shops, taking the total in the state to 7850.

The new policy was drawn up to check mafia control of liquor shops that, the minister said, had occurred during the Telugu Desam regime after the partial lifting of prohibition by then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu in 1997.

At the end of a three-year dry run, Naidu had allowed about 70 brands to begin marketing liquor in the state. The government acquired the stock from the companies and sold it to retailers. The present Congress regime has opened up the market to all brands.

?A 10 to 15 per cent hike in excise revenue is targeted for 2005-06 as against the collection of Rs 2,100 crore during 2004-05,? excise secretary Hariharan said.

Last evening, Raghuveera Reddy told the Assembly the government was planning a 300 per cent increase in excise duty on beer.

At present, Hyderabad has 200 bars and almost 1,200 liquor shops. The number of bars all over the state is 3000. The Congress government has decided to increase the number of bars from one for a population of 50,000 to one for a population of 25,000.

Explaining the decision, Raghuveera Reddy said it would discourage clandestine consumption of liquor.