Mumbai: The Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill banning dance performances in five, four, three star hotels and gymkhanas just a day before the end of the session. The urgency with which the bill was passed in the Assembly on Friday evening could be gauged from the fact that there was not much discussion on the ban.
The bill was placed before the Legislative Council on Friday itself and is expected to be cleared in the same way. The move to ban dance performances in star hotels and gymkhanas came after the state government realised that the only way to keep the ban on dance bars going was to also ban such performances in five-star hotels.
Earlier, when the bar girls and bar owners approached the Bombay High Court challenging the government ban, the HC had agreed with the petitioners’ contention and called the ban ‘discriminatory’ and ‘violating the constitutional right to earn a living’.
The high court observed that the state government had allowed dance performances in five-star hotels while banning it in bars. The state government decided to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court. However, SC too upheld the Bombay HC order.
The state government had earlier decided not to ban dance performances in five-star and three star hotels as the move would have been seen hurting tourism. However, in the wake of the SC judgment, the state government decided to go for a complete ban on dance performances in five star hotels too, so that the bar owners would not be able to raise the issue of ‘discrimination’ again.
Bureau Report
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