Click to play videoMumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday set aside a Maharashtra government legislation which banned the bars in the state last year.
The High Court has given the state government eight weeks' time to file a reply regarding the verdict. The Maharashtra government, has however, decided to move the Supreme Court.
The court said the legislation, implemented on August 15, 2005, was against individuals' right to choose their profession.
The ban affected 2,500 dance bars in the state and left nearly 75,000 bar dancers unemployed.
The Association of Hotels and Restaurants, the Dance Bar Owners' Association, the Bharatiya Bar Girls' Union filed petitions against the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act soon after its implementation.
The petitioners contended that by banning dance bars and exempting 3-star and 5-star hotels, the Maharashtra government discriminated between two sections of society.
They alleged that this was in blatant disregard to Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law.
Dance bar owners fought the ban on the grounds that the government was infringing on the dancers' constitutional right to earn a living.
Dance bar owner and one of the petitioners, Manjeet Singh Abrol, appealed to the state government not to move Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil are holding discussions over the High Court verdict.
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