The State government’s latest move to prevent dance bars from opening in Maharashtra was played on Thursday. Though licences were issued to owners of three dance bars in Mumbai, they came with a rider: owners must fulfil all the conditions laid down in the new law.
Following a long delay in granting licences to dance bars, the Supreme Court had on Tuesday ordered the State to grant licences to eight bars in Mumbai within two days.
After taking no action in the matter till Wednesday, the State made its move on Thursday afternoon, informing the applicants that they had to submit a demand draft of Rs 2 lakh along with their applications.
“As per the earlier law, applicants had to attach a DD for Rs. 1.8 lakh per year, at the rate of Rs. 500 per day and a separate fee of Rs. 2,000. The new law stipulates that a DD for a lump sum of Rs. 2 lakh be attached,” a senior police officer said.
After being informed about the new rule at around 11:30 a.m., the eight applicants scrambled to obtain the DDs from their banks. Only three of them were able to do so: the owners of Indiana in Tardeo, Aero Punjab in Andheri, and Classic in Andheri. They were issued licences late on Thursday evening.
Bharat Thakur, president of the dance bar association, said the licences were meaningless as they have been issued as per the new conditions levied by the State government. “The government has slapped unreasonable conditions. As per the rules, we cannot serve liquor and we have to close the bar at 11.30 p.m. Which customer will come if we do that? We want the licence as per the 26 conditions that were laid out earlier and which we had even complied with. We have taken the licence as when the matter comes up for hearing on Friday, we will tell the court the hurdles the State has created to prevent us from opening the bars.”
Mr Thakur said since the court will be closed for one-and-a-half months after Friday, the association will file a fresh writ petition to challenge the new regulations imposed by the State after it reopens.
Sources confirmed to The Hindu that a high-level meeting was under way till late on Thursday evening between State government officials, who are going to file a fresh submission in the SC on Friday. The State government had earlier made it mandatory for dance bars to be covered by CCTV cameras, with the footage being broadcast to the police station, which was struck down by the SC.
Thereafter, in March, the State government had issued licences to three bars in Mumbai. However, three days later, the licences were revoked and the three policemen who had filed reports certifying that the dance bars had met all the conditions were suspended.
The State subsequently passed a new law which laid down several conditions, including that the dance and bar sections would have to be separated by a wall, that the bars could not be within a one-kilometre radius of an educational institution, and that the bars could only operate till 11:30 p.m.
The law also calls for action against any ‘obscene actions’ during the dance. However, there is no clear definition of the word ‘obscene’ in the law.
Licence issued
to three bars,
but conditions levied make them ‘meaningless’
