In an attempt to continue ban on dance bars in Maharashtra, the Congress-led DF Government on Thursday approved a draft Bill to remove legal lacunae in the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act, a ground on which the Supreme Court had in July last year struck its 2005 legislation banning dance bars in the State.
Through its new Bill, the Prithviraj Chavan Government seeks to bring in three star and five-star hotels under the purview of the legislation seeking to ban dance bars in the State.One of the grounds for the apex court lifting the ban on dance bars was that the 2005 State legislation amending the Bombay Police Act was discriminatory in nature as it had exempted three and five star hotels from the ban.
The Government will table the amendment Bill in the State legislature either on Friday or Saturday, which incidentally is the last day of the ongoing Monsoon Session. This is the last session of the Maharashtra legislature before the State Assembly Elections to be held in October this year.The new Bill seeks to further amend Bombay Police (Amendment) Act to bring three and five star hotels under its purview.
The Bombay High Court, it may be recalled, had on April 12, 2006 struck down a legislation banning dance bars in the State. In its significant ruling on a bunch of PIls challenging the ban on dance bars in the State, a bench of the High Court comprising Justice F I Rebello and Justice Roshan Dalvi had then termed as “unconstitutional” an amendment to the Bombay Police Act, enacted by the State Government in August 2005, and set it aside.
later on July 16,2013, the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay High Court’s April 2006 ruling striking down the legislation banning dance bars in the State. Through its ruling, the Apex Court brought back smiles on the faces of nearly 75,000 bar dancers working in 2,500-odd bars before their establishments were shut down in the State on August 15, 2005.
The Apex Court’s verdict had revived the spirits of night revellers in Mumbai, a city that never sleeps.