No offence in merely attending dance bar: Bombay HC strikes down FIR against two Mumbai residents

Bombay high court last week struck down the prosecution of two dance bar customers, observing that no offence was committed by them by merely visiting the bar where purportedly obscene dance moves were being performed by some girls

Bombay high court last week struck down the prosecution of two dance bar customers, observing that no offence was committed by them by merely visiting the bar where purportedly obscene dance moves were being performed by some girls.

Bombay high court.

The petitioners, a Vile Parle resident Rushabh Mehta,28, and Adit Purohit, 29, from Andheri (West) - were apprehended by Santacruz police on January 21, 2017, when they found sitting as customers at a bar. Both of them were rounded up by police along with bar staff and other customers.

All of them were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (working therein) Act, 2016.

Both the petitioners moved HC through advocate Sandeep Sherkhane, for quashing of the criminal proceeding against them, contending that no overt acts were attributed to them and even if the material collected by police was taken as it is, no offence was made out against them, therefore the proceeding was liable to be struck down.

HC accepted the argument. The division bench of justice Sambhaji Shinde and justice Manish Pitale noted that section 294 (performing an obscene act in public) and 114 (abetment) of the IPC, slapped against them, comes into play only when someone indulges in any obscene act at a public place.

As regards the sections of the 2016 Act, the bench said there was no material to indicate ingredients of the sections, except mere mentioning of the names of the petitioners in the first information report (FIR) and the charge-sheet, which the court said was not sufficient to prosecute the petitioners.