Maharashtra moves to close dance bar licence loophole

The government said bar owners had found a way around the 2016 law by obtaining orchestra licences under the Police Act and using them to conduct dance performances.

Under Section 33 of the Maharashtra Police Act, police commissioners and district magistrates can issue licences for public performances, including music and dance. It is these provisions that the government now wants to amend.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons accompanying the Bill says licences for live music performances issued under the Police Act have increasingly been used as an alternative to dance performance licences under the 2016 Act. “To curb this practice,” it says, orchestra licences in hotels, restaurants and bars need to be brought within the ambit of the Dance Bar Act instead.

The amendment follows Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s announcement in the Assembly last week that the government had identified an “escape route” being used by some establishments despite the enactment of the Dance Bar Act.

“We will bring an amendment to the Maharashtra Police Act in this Monsoon Session itself to stop this practice,” Fadnavis had said.

If passed, the amendment would mean bars and restaurants can no longer rely on orchestra licences issued under the Police Act for performances that fall within the scope of the Dance Bar Act. Such establishments will instead have to comply with the conditions laid down under the 2016 law.

The move is the government’s latest attempt to tighten regulation of dance bars, an issue that has seen repeated legal and political battles over the past two decades. The state maintains that the amendment is intended to ensure that establishments cannot bypass one law by seeking licences under another.