SC raps state govt, permits dance bars to serve alcohol

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court termed selective prohibition on serving liquor inside the dance bar by the Maharashtra government as absurd and said it indicated the

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court termed selective prohibition on serving liquor inside the dance bar by the Maharashtra government as absurd and said it indicated the state’s “regressive mindset by centuries”.

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“If a bar has the licence to serve liquor, how can you stop them from serving it in the area where dancers perform? Either you ban liquor completely. But you can’t say dance bars will not serve liquor,” the bench headed by justice Dipak Misra told senior counsel Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the state.

Naphade, however, refused to back down. He argued the state was well within its powers to regulate and drinking alcohol was not a fundamental right. “I have absolute right to prohibit its serving unless you (SC) take away this right from me through a judgment,” Naphade told the bench.

As an interim measure, the bench asked the state not to impose its new regulations on the three dance bars that got the licence to operate under the old guidelines. SC is hearing a petition challenging the new law to regulate the bars. At the outset, the bench said it appeared as if the state was imposing new conditions with a view to circumvent the SC’s 2013 ruling that quashed an earlier ban imposed on dance bars because it violated fundamental rights of dancers.