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Maharashtra: Dance bar ordinance may pass in 2 weeks

The Devendra Fadnavis-led regime is planning to promulgate an ordinance within a fortnight to ensure that these establishments do not start.

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After the Supreme Court struck down some rules laid down by the state government for opening dance bars, the Devendra Fadnavis-led regime is planning to promulgate an ordinance within a fortnight to ensure that these establishments do not start.

Finance and Forests Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said they would issue an ordinance in less than a fortnight. Mungantiwar added that the state government would make it tough for dance bars to get licenses and operate and the law and judiciary department was examining the SC’s order.

However, a senior home department official said a majority of the 39 rules set by the state for allowing dance bars had been upheld as was the validity of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (working therein) Act, 2016, like the concept of obscenity.

“The law is intact. The court has given us discretion on issues like fixing the norms to decide if a person applying for licenses has a good character, distance from educational and religious institutions and the nature of contracts with performers. We can also introduce new rules which will make it tough for dance bars to open and operate… It is not as if dance bars have been allowed. They were already permitted, but subject to certain stringent conditions,” he explained.

Mungantiwar said they could introduce stringent norms for the distance between dance bars and educational and religious institutions, which would make it tough for such establishments to get licenses in a built up city like Mumbai. CCTVs could also be permitted at the entrance of dance bars and identity proofs could be made mandatory for entry.

In 2005, the then Congress- NCP government had banned dance bars and this was struck down by the high court in 2006 and apex court in 2013. A cabinet sub-committee suggested an amendment to the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, which was approved.

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