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India-Pakistan
Dancing girls rejoice as Indian court strikes down dance bar ban
2006-04-12
The high court in India's financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), has lifted a ban on dance bars, imposed last year by the state government. The court ruled that the ban was discriminatory and violated the right to equality. The court ruling has been welcomed by the city's out-of-work dancing girls.

But the BBC's Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says the ruling is being seen as a big setback for the government. The government had said the bars were breeding grounds for crime and prostitution. The ban had affected more than 100,000 women who worked in some 1,400 bars across the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. More than half of them had become jobless overnight and many were forced into prostitution to survive. Following the court ruling, the bars can apply for licenses again.

The state government has been given eight weeks to appeal against the judgment in the Supreme Court. Bar owners and dance girls had bitterly protested against the ban, saying that the government was playing with their lives. They were particularly critical of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, RR Patil, who was instrumental in banning the bars. Mr Patil had argued that the bars had become a den of prostitution and that they were "a bad influence on young men".

The fully-clothed girls would dance to the tune of Bollywood numbers and clients often threw them money.
Posted by:Ebbique Crolutle7067

#2  n a 260-page ruling, it held that the law was void as it imposed "an unreasonable restrictionÂ’Â’ which was "not in the public interest". The ban, enforced from August 15 last year on grounds of "immorality and obscenity", was touted as one of the key achievements of the ruling Congress-NCP alliance.

A division bench of Justice F I Rebello and Justice Roshan Dalvi, hearing a bunch of public interest petitions by bar owners, bar girls, activists and NGOs challenging the government legislation, ruled that the ban violated fundamental rights and the constitutional right to equality of bar dancers and bar owners.

While the judges maintained that the law "did not violate the dancersÂ’ or bar ownersÂ’ right to life or freedom of speech and expression", as claimed by the petitioners, they took exception to the fact that the state government was restricting dance performances only in dance bars, restaurants and permit rooms, while allowing hotels, clubs and discotheques to continue with these. They said the blanket ban on all types of dances in these places did not have any connection with the object of the ban which, according to the government, was "to prevent dances which are obscene, vulgar or immoral and derogatory to the dignity of women".

The judges said the governmentÂ’s justification for the ban on grounds that bar girls were exploited did not stand the test. "If women other than dancers can work in prohibited establishments and that does not amount to exploitation, we do not see why, when women dance to earn their livelihood, it becomes exploitation," said the judges.
Posted by: john   2006-04-12 16:06  

#1  Once the Jihadis visit these places, get their lap dances and drinks, they'll be fraught with deep guilt and shame. From there, they will proceed to blame the Jews, the USA, and women, and of course carry out the next logical act: murderous boomings of the dance bars.
Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden   2006-04-12 09:47  

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