It seems total moral policing is on in Maharashtra: SC on dance bars
New Delhi, Aug 9 : The Supreme Court on Thursday said that apparently "total moral policing" is going on in Maharashtra and sought to know from the state why it has not allowed a single dance bar to operate.
A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan asked the Maharashtra government why it has not issued a single licence to dance bars even after court's repetitive orders.
The apex court observed that with the changing times, the definition of obscenity has also changed and now even the law and society have recognised live-in like relationships, which earlier were not acceptable.
Earlier, filmmakers used to show two flowers or two birds chirping instead of showing kiss or love-making scenes in movies but now the time has changed, Justice Sikri said.
During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the state argued that even today society at large has not changed as far as perception is concerned. No traditional families would allow their children to visit places like dance bars, he added.
The court was hearing a batch of plea filed by hotel and restaurant owners, bar girls and others challenging the new law of the state imposing new restrictions on licensing and functioning of dance bars there.
The new law is Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (Working therein) Act, 2016.
As the hearing remained inconclusive, the court has now posted the case for August 23.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
