Dance bar owners have said that they would not abide by the newly passed Act that regulates dance bars in the city.
Dance bar owners have said that they would not abide by the newly passed Act that regulates dance bars in the city. The owners, who challenged the law in the Supreme Court on Friday, said that the bars that had been issued licences would open in the coming week.
The Mumbai police, the licence-issuing authority, said action would be taken once it perused the SC order. After the issue of reopening dance bars started picking up steam, the state government passed a newly enacted law called the Maharashtra Prevention of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Bar Rooms and Protection of the Dignity of Women Act. The rules dictated by it for dance bars to function peacefully are stringent.
Terming many rules in the new Act impossible to obey, Bharat Thakur, Bar Committee head, performance, Association of Hotel and Restaurants (AHAR) said the bars would not be following any of them. “The new law says that no alcohol should be served in the dancing area and also that no woman can perform after 9.30 pm and the bar itself has to shut by 11.30 pm. How can we even think of functioning under such rules ” Mr Thakur said. The owners want the Mumbai police to issue licences on the basis of whether the bars complied with conditions previously set before them.
“Before the Act was passed, we were handed over 26 conditions to be followed without them even consulting with us once. But we still complied with all of them and also agreed to the Supreme Court’s condition that we will not appoint anybody with a criminal background. Then suddenly we were handed over this new set of laws and rules to follow,” said Mr Thakur.
On Thursday, the Mumbai police issued licences to three of the six bars that applied for the same. The bars, namely Indiana in Tardeo, Airo and Sai Prasad in Andheri, were issued the licences after they submitted a demand draft for Rs 2 lakh. Mr Thakur, the owner of Indiana bar, said that they will throw open the doors of the establishment within a week.
“Patrons can come and watch performances in the coming week. We will function fully once we get the court order and get the document in hand,” he said. He added that they had complied with all the 26 conditions previously asked for by the government including installing CCTVs at entry points and obtaining a Rangbhumi certificate before performances begin and also allowing free access in to the dance bar for police officers to conduct inspections.
Mr Thakur mentioned that other bars would start applying for licences again and start operating fully once they received them.
Pradip B. Sawant DCP (HQ 1) who is in charge of issuing licences said that the police would act in accordance with the apex court order. “We will look take any action after the Supreme Court gives its final verdict,” he said.
