Dance bars: SC orders Maharashtra govt to give licences by March 15

The apex court has modified the conditions for the permit and excluded installation of CCTV from restaurants and dance performance place

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the decks for the issuance of dance bar licences to hotels and restaurants in Mumbai as it modified the conditions for the permit and excluded installation of CCTV from restaurants and dance performance place.

Giving three days' time to the owners of the hotels and restaurants to comply with the modified conditions, the apex court bench, comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh, said competent authorities would issue licences in 10 days and thereafter.

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"We are certain that competent authorities will not conceive of anything to stall the grant of licence," the court said and added that the authorities will "comply with the command of this court and not venture to defy it".

The court order came after the Maharashtra government watered down some of the conditions for the grant of dance bar licences.

The petitioner Indian Hotels and Restaurant Association had told the court on February 24 that some of the conditions being imposed for the grant of licence were unreasonable.

On February 24, the court had asked the Maharashtra government to revisit the conditions.