It is better to dance than beg SC over Dance Bars Matter

A petition challenging dance bars in Mumbai on grounds that they are “obscene” and is “what happens inside is not cultural dancing but obscenity.”

The court replied, “This is 2016. Dancing is an established profession. It is better to dance than to go to streets for begging or earning livelihood through unacceptable means. The mindset cannot be to prohibit…we are treating it as a performance of art.”
The court also said: ” But if it becomes obscene, then it does not have legal sanctity.”

The licences are impossible to get as per the Dance bar association. Despite the Supreme Court’s order granting permission to reopen the Hundreds of bars banned in 2005.

Only 39 out of 139 bars in Mumbai have been inspected and not cleared while leaving the rest 100 not even inspected. The Maharashtra police have been asked to verify dance bar owners and workers within a week so they could get licences.

The Supreme Court rejected some of the conditions from a dozen stated by Maharashtra Government to get a license including Live streaming of bars in the police stations. The supreme Court suggested the installation of closed-circuit televisions at the entrance, with a limit of four dancers per bar, a railing around the performance area, and a distance of at least 5 feet (1.5 m) between the stage and customers.

By – Rohit Arora