The Orissa High Court today allowed employment of women for musical orchestra in bars and liquor-serving restaurants in the state on condition that the bar and restaurant owners follow the provisions of the Bihar and Orissa Excise Act of 1915 and the 2013-Supreme Court guidelines on it.
The Supreme Court guidelines stipulate that the performers should not wear clothes which expose body and there should be restriction on such performers wearing tight and provocative dresses. There should be a railing of three-feet height adjacent to the performing stage and there should be a minimum of five-feet distance between the railing and seats for the customers.
Adjudicating over a writ petition filed by an hotelier Prasanna Kumar Panda, a division bench of Justices Indrajit Mahanti and D P Choudhury ordered that for holding musical orchestra, the bar and restaurant owners need to obtain prior permission from the State Excise Board.
At least five petitioners had moved the High Court after the Bhubaneswar police and excise sleuths raided three bars and registered cases against hoteliers last month for performing musical orchestra in their premises without obtaining necessary permissions and violating the norms and guidelines.
