The Supreme Court on Wednesday said dance bars in Maharashtra will continue to operate under the old terms and conditions that permitted serving of liquor with CCTV cameras at the entrance.
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An apparently unimpressed bench said: “We understand logically and constitutionally the powers of the police”. He also brought to the notice of the court that imposing a condition to install CCTV will have a chilling effect on the visitors.
Six dance bars had submitted their affidavits to the Mumbai Police in May 2016 and only three were issued licences due to a massive confusion in the process, reports The Times of India.
“I have a power to regulate and I have a right that my regulations are complied with”. After all, the bar was barred from serving liquor, and had to shut at 11.30 p.m., conditions the State government had imposed while issuing the licence. “You should take other steps to protect the dignity of women and grant them shelter”, the bench said.
“It is regressive”, the court said on CCTVs in the dance area, adding: “It is not a theatre but a bar”.
The regulation that a dancer should be in the employment of a particular dance bar only on monthly engagement basis too has been contested on the grounds that it takes away the liberty of a dancer to work at more places than one.
“Tomorrow, if anything happens, they (dance bars) can not say that they do not want a policeman to enter the dance bars”.
Defending the provision, Mr Naphade said “If something goes wrong there”.
To this, the bench asked the counsel for IHRA to see whether any arrangement could be made that CCTV footage is stored for 30 days “without showing the visuals to anyone”.
Bar owners said the old rules date back to 2005 when the conditions weren’t so stringent: liquor could be served to patrons and no railings were needed around the performance area.
He also objected to the condition that dance bars can not operate within one kilometre of education institutions, saying in Mumbai it is very hard find such a place.
The petitioners claimed that the Maharashtra Act violated the fundamental rights of hotel and bar owners and sought the court’s direction to declare it unconstitutional, invalid, void and unenforceable. “The ban has been held to be unconstitutional by both the high court and this court vide its judgment…”, said the plea filed by IHAR.
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The court said it would hear the case on November 24 and allowed the three bars which have got a licence, to operate under the old rules.
