Nightclubs in top Mumbai hotels to stay open till 3am

Discotheques, pubs and clubs in four and five-star hotels in Mumbai will now be able to serve alcohol and remain open till 3am. Sayli Udas Mankikar reports.

Discotheques, pubs and clubs in four and five-star hotels in Mumbai will now be able to serve alcohol and remain open till 3am. However, regular hotels, restaurants and watering holes will be allowed to do so only till 1.30am.

This is a shift from the state government’s previous policy, where only some pubs/discos, in 14 four- and five-star hotels, had permission to stay open till 3am. Others had to take special permission.

The state home department, in a government resolution (GR) dated December 3, gives details on the new policy. “Framing new rules was under the consideration of the government to bring a uniformity in timings of functioning of hotels,” the GR said.

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The resolution is a result of a petition filed by a restaurant and retro bar owner in Andheri, alleging that the police were disrupting his business by not allowing him to conduct orchestras till 3am. His plea had questioned why some discotheques and clubs in four and five-star hotels were allowed to function till 3am, while he was not.

ACS Home, UC Sarangi, in his affidavit to the court on November 22, 2011, had justified the government’s stance by pointing out: “Mumbai being an international city... people arrive at late hours... it has therefore been decided to continue with the earlier policy to keep closer (sic) time till 3 am (for four and five-stars).”