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- By Parinda News Bureau, April 12, 2006, 16:34 IST
Mumbai: There is jubilation among the 2,500 families of girls who danced in the bars. Mumbai dance bars may soon reopen. The Bombay High Court on Wednesday set aside the Maharashtra government's legislation which banned the bars in the state on August 15, 2005.
The Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR), the Dance Bar Owners' Association (DBOA), the Bharatiya Bar Girls' Union (BBGU) had filed petitions against the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act which banned dance bars. Mumbai's dance bar owners had been fighting the ban on the grounds that the government was infringing on the dancers' constitutional right to earn a living.
The ban had affected 2,500 dance bars in the state and left nearly 75,000 bar dancers unemployed. A section of sociologists and media have been of the opinion that there is a direct connection between the rise in sex-related crimes and the ban on dance bars.
The Home Minister R. R. Patil had made the ban a prestige issue, and has every intention of challenging the HC’s verdict.
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