The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a petition filed by women working in Maharashtra’s bars, including dancers and waitresses, against the constitutionality of a 2016 State law containing a rather explicit definition of what is “obscene” in dance.
The Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (working therein) Act, 2016 was passed by the State Assembly to circumvent a 2015 Supreme Court judgment which ordered dance bars to be thrown open again and classified dance as a profession.
The Bench has already expressed its suspicion that this law was just a ruse to “circumvent” the court’s order.
The Act says an ‘obscene dance’ consists of “a sexual act, lascivious movements, gestures for the purpose of sexual propositioning or indicating availability of sexual access to the dancer, or in the course of which, the dancer exposes his or her genitals or, if a female, is topless.”
Legal experts said terms used like “lascivious movements,” etc., is at best vague and exposes the dancer and her establishment to the whims of the authorities itching to crack down on them.
Responding to the plea made by the Bharatiya Bargirls Union for an early hearing, a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra posted the case on March 2.
The court is already hearing petitions, including one filed by the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the 2016 Act.
The bar girls’ union argued that the 2016 law stigmatised their profession and unreasonably interfered with their free choice of expression through dramatic performances.
“The act of tipping or giving gifts as a token of appreciation has been customary and an integral part of traditional dance culture. This decades-old practice is akin to those performing Mujra, Lavani [traditional Marathi song and dance] or Tamasha [traditional Marathi theatre] where performers earn their living through ‘bakshisi’ offered by the audience as a token of appreciation of the performances..,” the petition said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had criticised the new law for prohibiting liquor in dance bars as “absurd,” “absolutely arbitrary” and indicative of the State’s mentality which is “absolutely regressive by centuries.”
The 2015 order lifting the ban on dance bars came as a relief for women who had lost their jobs and slipped into prostitution and penury due to the clampdown after the Maharashtra Assembly, in July 2014, circumvented a 2013 Supreme Court decision that upheld that “dancing is a fundamental right.”
