The apex court strikes down several provisions of state laws imposed in 2016 that placed curbs on the functioning of Mumbai’s once famous dance bars
Late evenings will never be the same again in Mumbai with the Supreme Court overruling the Maharashtra government’s ban on dance bars in the state, allowing tips and alcohol inside dance bars. The Court, in its judgment, said that there can’t be a total prohibition on dance bars, asserting that there may be regulations but not total prohibition.
The apex court, however, upheld certain state laws governing dance bars, while weeding out others. It was the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association and the Bhartiya Bargirls Union that had challenged certain provisions of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurant and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (Working therein) Act, 2016, and the rules framed under the Act. The petitioners approached the Court to regulate how the dance bars would operate in the state.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan gave the judgment, upholding some parts of the legislation, while quashing others. Section 8(4) of the said Act, which prohibits showering of currency notes and coins on the dancers, has been partly struck down. The Court has allowed payment to dancers personally, saying: “We, therefore, uphold the provision insofar as it prohibits throwing or showering of coins, currency notes or any article or anything which can be monetised on the stage. However, handing over of the notes to the dancers personally is not inappropriate.”
The segregation of the bar room area from the hotel has also been quashed by the bench, saying there is no rationale or justification in imposing “such a condition which appears to be quite unreasonable”. While quashing the condition of keeping such establishments 1 km away from an educational or religious institution, the bench took into account the “ground realities particularly in the city of Mumbai where it would be difficult to find any place which is 1 km away from either an education institution or a religious institution”.
Also quashed was the condition that mandated the installation of CCTV cameras, holding it violative of the right to privacy. The Act had put a restriction on serving of alcohol in the premises, which was also set aside since it amounts to “moral policing”.
The regulations might have been alleviated, but the true purpose had not been sidelined, the Court mentioned. “The present legislation is given a cloak of bringing regulatory regime to regulate the places where there are dance performances. For this purpose, the impugned Act does not permit dance performances without obtaining licence under Section 3 of the Act. Further, it makes obscene dances a penal offence. No quarrel on this.” Therefore, the time restriction on such establishments has been upheld by the Court. Mentioning the operation hours of such dance bars being between 6 pm and 11.30 pm, the Court said, “we do not find it to be manifestly unreasonable”.
It is the second time that the apex court has passed judgment on dance bars. In 2013, the Court had upheld the right of bar dancers to pursue their profession after the state government banned girl dancers from performing in the city’s bars.
—By Naved Ahmed