Relief for dance bars as SC strikes down Maharashtra norms

New Delhi: After a gap of over four years, during which the Maharashtra government persistently dug in its heels, dance bars are set to come alive in Mumbai and other cities in the state after the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside almost all stringent conditions that hampered grant of licence and led to closure of most bars.

Paving the way for opening of the dance bars, a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said the state government, under the garb of regulation, had imposed conditions that were virtually impossible to adhere to. “The State, thereby, is aiming to achieve something indirectly which it could not do directly,” it said.

Mumbai’s famous dance bars had been a part of its night life but successive state governments since 2005 sought to discourage live dance performances in bars and this is the third time that the SC intervened to protect the interest of owners and bar girls. This time the court quashed provisions to bring dance bars under CCTV surveillance and to ban serving of liquor, noting the regulations are totally disproportionate, unreasonable and arbitrary.

The court said there cannot be a complete prohibition from serving alcoholic beverages and other measures have to be adopted to check any nuisance. The court did, however, agree with the state government in allowing the bars to operate only between 6pm-11:30 pm and to ban the practice of showering notes and coins on the dancing stage.

“We see no reason as to why liquor cannot be served at such places. It seems that the state is more influenced by moralistic overtones under the wrong presumption that persons after consuming alcohol will misbehave with the dancers. If this is so, such a presumption would be equally applicable to bar rooms where alcohol is served by women waitresses. However, such conditions have been held to be unreasonable by the courts. There may be aberrations or sporadic incidents of this nature which can happen not only at the places where dance performances are staged but at other places including bar rooms and even main restaurants,” the bench said.

The court said mandatory installation of CCTV cameras at entrances and other places of amusement was “totally inappropriate and amounts to invasion of privacy”. The bench also ruled that separation of the dancing stage from the bar area by placing non-transparent partition is not required.

“We do not find any rationality or justification in imposing such a condition which appears to be quite unreasonable and there cannot be any rationale in this provision having regard to any objective sought to be achieved. Therefore, this provision is struck down,” it said.

The court also quashed the provision to ban opening of dance bars within the radius of 1km from educational and religious institutions, saying the state government did not take into account ground realities, particularly in Mumbai, where it would be difficult to find a place that meets the criteria.

“This, therefore, amounts to fulfilling an impossible condition and the effect thereof is that, at no place licence would be granted. Therefore, this condition is also held to be arbitrary and unreasonable and is quashed, with liberty to the respondents to prescribe the distance from educational and religious institutions, which is reasonable and workable,” it said in 100-page judgement written by Justice Sikri.

It also set aside the rule which prohibited customers from tipping dancing girls directly. “If that is done, the person who is rightful recipient of such tips may be denied the same. Further, state cannot impose a particular manner of tipping (that it be covered in the bill) as it is entirely a matter between an employer and performer on the one hand and the performer and the visitor on the other hand...handing over of notes to the dancers personally is not inappropriate,” the court said.

The condition that only a person with ‘good character’ and with no criminal antecedents is eligible to get licence was also set aside by the SC which said these expressions are capable of any interpretation and prone to be misused as per the whims and fancy of government officials.