Maharashtra Bill Seeks to End Dance Bar Licence Loophole via Orchestra Permits

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday introduced a Bill to amend the Maharashtra Police Act, aiming to stop dance bars from operating using orchestra licences instead of permissions under the state's Dance Bar Act.

The Bill, tabled in the Assembly by Minister of State for Home (Rural) Pankaj Bhoyar, proposes removing provisions for live music performance and orchestra licences in hotels, restaurants and bars from the Maharashtra Police Act. Instead, such permissions will be governed by the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (Working Therein) Act, 2016.

The government stated that 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. The government now wants to amend these provisions.

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 notes, 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” 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 conditions under the 2016 law.

The move is the government's latest effort 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 establishments cannot bypass one law by seeking licences under another.