Mumbai, Aug. 9: Maharashtra governor S.M. Krishna has given his assent to a bill that proposes to cancel the licences of the state’s around 1,200 “dance bars”.

But with bar owners and dancers determined to move court, it may not be curtains yet for these bars.

Krishna, who had sent an ordinance on this back to the government in June, received the bill yesterday, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said.

“He has read it and given his assent. The bill will be sent to the state government.”

The new law is expected to take at least a week to come into force.

The government has to publish a formal notification in the official gazette. It must also formally direct the state police chief to enforce the bill.

The Bombay Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2005, passed by both Houses of the state legislature on July 20 and 23, amends the Bombay Police Act, 1951.

The bill scraps Section 33, under which a bar can get a police licence to hold dance-related programmes.

It introduces two special clauses allowing three-star and five-star hotels as well as discotheques to continue with dance performances.

The dance bar industry has already drafted a writ petition challenging the bill and the Dance Bars’ Co-ordination Committee is likely to file it in Bombay High Court on Thursday.

The committee includes representatives of dance bars, bar girls and other bars in the state.

The committee has also engaged two noted lawyers.

“The committee is a united front of the Fight for Right Dance Bar Association (FRDBA), Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Ahar) and the Bar Girls’ Union. V.R. Manohar will appear for Ahar and Flavia Agnes will represent the bar girls,” said FRDBA president Manjeet Singh Sethi.

The bill will be challenged on the ground that it violates Article 19 of the Constitution by denying the bar owners and dancers the right to livelihood and equality.

“This is discrimination. Five-star hotels are allowed to continue dance performances, but we cannot,” Sethi said.

The petition will demand that dance bar employees are rehabilitated and will pray for an interim stay on the bill.

NGOs which support the ban, initiated by deputy chief minister R.R. Patil, are likely to intervene in the petition.

Till the legal battle is settled, many of the dance bars are likely to turn ladies service bars without dance performances.

“Ladies service bars are allowed. If we don’t get the interim stay, we will keep the kitchen fire burning by turning into ladies service bars,” Sethi said.

“Many of the women (dancers) have taken housing loans and have financial commitments. They will starve if we throw them out.”

Many believe that the bill will shift the focus away from the recent Mumbai deluge and offer the Vilasrao Deshmukh government some respite from criticism over its inept handling of the floods.

A study last month found that most of the bar dancers are their families’ lone bread-winners and earn less than Rs 10,000 a month.