SC quashes gender cap rule for Maharashtra dance bars

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 19

The Supreme Court has struck down a Maharashtra rule that restricted the number of woman artists present on stage in dance bars to only four out of the total eight permitted, saying it violated women’s fundamental right against non-discrimination.

A Bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice S Ravindra Bhat said the impugned gender cap appeared to be the product of a stereotypical view that women who performed in dance bars and other such establishments belonged to a certain class of society and carried low societal status.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court had rejected the petitions challenging the gender cap imposed by the Commissioner of Police, saying the power to impose such conditions was justified under the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, and the rules thereunder.

However, setting aside the Bombay High Court’s verdict on the issue, the Bench declared that “the condition imposing a gender cap as to the number of women or men, who can perform in orchestras and bands, in bars licensed under the rules, 1960, and other allied provisions, is void. While the overall limit of performers in any given performance cannot exceed eight, the composition can be of any combination”.

It said courts have repeatedly emphasised, whenever challenges arise, particularly based on gender, it is the task of the judges to scrutinise closely, whether, if and the extent to which the impugned practices or rules or norms are rooted in historical prejudice, gender stereotypes and paternalism.