The Orissa High Court on Thursday allowed employment of women for musical orchestra in bars and liquor-serving restaurants in the State provided the bar and restaurant owners follow the provisions of the Bihar and Orissa Excise Act of 1915 and the 2013-Supreme Court guidelines in this regard.
Adjudicating a writ petition filed by a hotelier, Prasanna Kumar Panda, a Division Bench of Justices Indrajit Mahanti and DP Choudhury ordered that for holding musical orchestra, the bar and restaurant owners shall have to obtain prior permission from the State Excise Board.
“The Excise Board shall issue permission within seven days of application if the applicant meets the provisions in Section 25 (ii) of Bihar and Orissa Excise Act,” said Panda’s counsel Debasis Das quoting the HC order. He added that the owners shall have to follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court issued in 2013 in the Bombay dance bar case.
At least five petitioners had moved the High Court after the Bhubaneswar police and Excise personnel raided three bars and registered cases against hoteliers last month for performing musical orchestra in their premises without obtaining necessary permissions and violating the norms and guidelines.
The SC guidelines stipulate that the woman performers should not wear clothes which expose body and there should be restriction on such performers wearing tight and provocative dresses. There should be a railing of three feet height adjacent to the performing stage and there should be a minimum of five feet distance between the railing and seats for the customers.
The High Court also directed the police to ensure that the hotels organising musical orchestra do not violate the Supreme Court guidelines on noise pollution. The guidelines say the sound from the orchestra shall not be above 55 decibels at night and sound boxes shall not be used after 10 pm.