Maharashtra ban on dance bars struck down

      Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday lifted the Maharashtra Government's ban on dance bars and permitted those with valid licences to resume operations. The High Court gave the state government eight weeks' time to file a reply on the verdict. The verdict declared on the petition filed by Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR), Dance Bar Owners' Association (DBOA), Bharatiya Bar Girls' Union (BBGU) and others challenged the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act, which was enforced on August 15, 2005. The government has introduced the bill imposing ban on dance bars on the grounds that it create law and order problem and the dancers also indulge in prostitution. "The state was trying to supplant its political agenda with a ban and was shying away from its responsibility of regulating the activity," senior lawyer, V R Manohar said.

     As per the figures presented by senior counsel Aspi Chinoy, who represented BBGU, not a single licence was cancelled in the 2,793 cases, initiated against dance bars by the city police between 2000 and 2005. Commenting on the state's argument that the ban on the dance bars was important because existing laws were insufficient to manage the menace, Chinoy said when the government says that dance bar owners know how to get around the law, it is actually pointing fingers at its own staff. The petitioners contended that by banning dance bars and exempting 3-star and 5-star hotels, the Maharashtra government discriminated between two sections of society. They alleged that this was in blatant disregard to Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law.

    The Maharashtra government on March 30, 2005 had banned dance bars across the state, except Mumbai. The ban was extended to Mumbai on April 12. The reason that the government gave for the ban was that these bars corrupt the youth. Soon after the decision, the bar dancers had joined hands to oppose the ban. Most of them said they had families to feed and this was the only job which paid them enough. Even several bar dancers, who had been rendered jobless by the Maharashtra government's ban on dance bars, have committed suicide as they were the only sole breadwinners of their families. The Maharashtra Government had refused to compensate bar dancers after the ban came into effect.

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