Mumbai dance bars take ‘unreasonable’ obscenity law to SC
NEW DELHI: Maharashtra’s dance bar owners have moved the Supreme Court against a new law that says obscenity in dance performances will invite a five-year jail term, but does not clearly define obscenity.
The law defines “obscene dance” as a dance “designed only to arouse the prurient interest of the audience”.
The petitioner also questioned a bar on tipping dancers, calling it “irrational”.
The Dance Bar Regulation Bill was passed by the Maharashtra assembly on April 13 and notified on April 20. It includes 26 conditions that bar owners must comply with to get licences. Days later, an SC bench headed by justice Dipak Misra said, “It is better for women to perform in dance bars than to beg on the streets or indulge in unacceptable activities.”
The Maharashtra government banned dance bars in the state in 2005, rendering an estimated 150,000 people — half of them dancers — jobless. The Bombay high court struck down the government order in 2006 but the state challenged it in the Supreme Court, which allowed a stay on grant of licence.
The top court upheld the high court ruling in 2013 before finally lifting the ban in October last year.
The dance bar owners said they find the repeated attempts at banning them frustrating.
In its petition to the Supreme Court filed last week, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association said the new law was another attempt by the state to override the SC verdict lifting the ban on dance bars. It said that despite court orders, the government was yet to renew or issue licences.
The association maintained the law violates the right to life/livelihood and the right to take up a profession of one’s choice.
The top court had during a hearing in May disallowed a provision of the law that made it mandatory for bars to record dance performances and provide the live feed to the police. “Have a regulatory mechanism in place, do surprise checks, send your police team. But no recording,” it had told the state. On another provision that said dance bars cannot operate within a kilometre of an educational institution, the court had pointed out that there was no such condition for granting liquor licences.
The law also stops bars from serving liquor in the performance area and from operating in residential buildings. They can function out of semi-residential buildings if they have the approval of three-fourths of the residents. It restricts bar timings between 6pm and 11.30pm, and says violations can invite fines of up to ₹25,000.
Quoting from the state government’s response to its letter, the petitioner said the number of police complaints against dance bars was negligible — 18, 31 and 14 complaints in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. It also said, “It appears no effort was made to verify the veracity of the complaints.
“You said you want to be chowkidar (caretaker) of the country. You have become the Prime Minister … a big man now. Under the nose of chowkidar, theft of pulses is taking place ... Leave chowkidari to us and the Congress party,” he said, reading out excerpts from Modi’s Lok Sabha poll speeches.
“I want to remind the Prime Minister of the promises he made … He had promised that when the BJP government comes to power, it will bring down prices.”
He recalled Modi’s speech at a 2014 poll rally in Himachal Pradesh, in which the BJP leader criticised the UPA government over price rise. “Ma-bachche raat raat rote hain, aasoon pee ke sote hain (mother and child cry the whole night and sleep drinking their tears) … What a dialogue,” Gandhi said, in his seventh speech in the 16th Lok Sabha after the 2014 general elections.
Soaring food prices, especially of pulses, veggies and dairy products have fed inflation, driven up mainly by shrinking supplies after two years of back-to-back droughts in top farming states. Pulses such as tur or arhar dal are important sources of protein in India, which has been struggling to increase its output to meet local demand.
With India’s retail inflation moving towards the 7% mark, prices of tomato, sugar and pulses have become talking points for opposition parties, which accused the government of burdening the people with taxes, but not managing inflation.
The Opposition spoke about sugar and tomato, whose price have spiked substantially in the past few months. Sugar prices have gone up by 17%, while tomato has recorded a 100% rise.
Finance minister Jaitley said in case of sugar and onion, the government was worried about farmers not getting their remunerative prices.
“For many months, sugar was at Rs 22-23. We were worried about the farmers. Mills were getting closed. When sugar priced surged to Rs 40, we clamped down on exports,” he said.
“The biggest worry was how farmers will get prices for onions. 20,000 tons of onions had to be bought so that farmers get money. With fresh harvest, tomato prices will come down.”
Explaining the demand-supply gap on pulses, the finance minister said: “If steps to increase pulse production had been taken in the past decade, the situation would not have come to this.”
The five children of the couple — Bharat Nat, 45, and Mamta, 40 — were placed under the custody of one of their neighbours for the time being, officials said.
Eyewitnesses said Mishra, said to be in his sixties, picked up an axe and attacked the couple who owed him ₹15. The couple worked as daily wagers and used to buy groceries from the shop of the accused.
“The heads of both of them were severed; the man’s body had nine wounds and woman’s seven,” said a police officer who visited the incident spot.
Mainpuri is represented in the Lok Sabha by Tej Pratap Yadav, the grand-nephew of Mulayam Singh.Assembly elections are due in the state early next year and the SP faces a tough challenge from the BSP and BJP, both of which are making serious efforts to grab power in the country’s most populous state.Mayawati, a four-time chief minister, is citing alleged atrocities on Dalit and other lower caste people to rally her voters ahead of polls.
Perfect storm hits Delhi roads
The trouble spots included national highways 8 and 24, Rani Jhansi Road, Azad Market Chowk, Khajuri Chowk and Mathura Road.
“We have made arrangements to segregate the movement of kanwariyas and other road users and to minimise inconvenience to both. The devotees and commuters are advised to follow traffic rules. Violators will face on-the-spot prosecution,” said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Garima Bhatnagar.
On the weather front, the Met department predicted heavy rain for the next two days. Civic authorities received complaints of waterlogging from over 50 locations in the city — including Mathura Road, Moolchand flyover, Aurobindo Marg and Okhla Mandi.
THE LAW ALSO STOPS BARS FROM SERVING LIQUOR IN THE PERFORMANCE AREA AND FROM OPERATING IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul said in the meeting, “I have spent 20 years in Parliament but never thought of doing such a video. You have come here two years ago, and did something unthinkable.”
BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi asked if anyone had stopped him from filming and when did Mann come to know that he has done the wrong thing by shooting the video. The AAP MP from Sangrur, Punjab, said no body stopped him or told him that he is not doing the right thing.
BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab didn’t question Mann but AIADMK MP said Mann’s act was unbecoming of a parliamentarian. Mann will re-appear before the panel on Monday.
Mann had recorded an amateur video on his phone of his drive from his home in South Avenue near Parliament to inside the building, briefly detailing the security arrangements on his way and then posted it on Facebook. He has been asked to skip Parliament till the issue is not settled.