The Bombay High Court has granted an interim stay to the police department's order of posting constables inside bars and restaurants here. This interim order provides respite more than 50 bars in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane district.
"The court admitted our petitions, and stayed the posting of policemen in the bars," advocate Veena Thadani who represented the restaurant owners, said. The final hearing in the matter will come up in due course of time.
Since December 2013, two policemen each were posted inside 36 bars in Thane and over a dozen bars in Mumbai's Chembur and Govandi areas for over 12 hours. All these bars employed licensed women waitresses and singers.
The police had claimed that the deployment was necessary to ensure that the waitresses were not made to work beyond the permissible limits. They said the order aimed at curbing immoral activities due to the presence of women workforce.
"We had taken a strong objection to this contention made by the police. We argued before the court that the state's stand was very derogatory. Today women work in all walks of life. To assume that there would be immoral activities because of the presence of women is wrong," Ms Thadani said.
The court had, in the past observed that the posting of policemen for such long hours in the bars was wastage of their talent. It had observed that the same cops could be used to crack crime cases or to maintain law and order situation.
