KIRAN D JANI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE, returnable forthwith. The A. G. P. waives service. By consent taken up for hearing and final dispose.

(2.) THE Petitioner has a restaurant and bar known as Memsaab Restaurant and Bar situated at Novelty silk Compound. Western Express Highway, Dahisar (East), Mumbai. The Petitioner, has been granted a police licence for keeping a place of public entertainment under the Bombay Police Act, 1951 and the Rules framed thereunder. The Petitioner applied for a Performance Licence to introduce a dance performance in the background of recorded music during the evenings. The application has not been disposed of. The Learned Vacation Judge passed an order on 29th December 2003, directing the Second Respondent to dispose of the application within a period of eight weeks. The aforesaid order is hereby confirmed and shall operate as an order in the Writ Petition.

(3.) COUNSEL appearing on behalf of the Petitioner has, however, submitted that in the meantime even until the application for the grant, of a performance Licence is taken up, the Petitioner should be allowed to stage performances as desired. In my view, no such relief can be granted until the application for the grant of a performance licence is heard and disposed of. The attention of the court has been drawn by the A. G. P. to the Keeping of Places of Public Entertainment Licence (Amendment) Rules, 1999. By the aforesaid rules, the principal Rules of 1953 came to be amended. As a result, in Rule 16a of the principal Rules, it has been provided that no amusement in any form like a dance, play, performance, recorded dance, or mimicry whether on fee or free of cost shall be allowed to be performed without a licence.