The Maharashtra government had placed a stipulation limiting the number of female and male performers in orchestra bars to four each, but the Supreme Court overturned it, saying that laws based on gender stereotypes have no place in society.
“While the total number of participants in any particular performance cannot exceed eight, the composition (i.e., all-male, majority female or male, or vice versa) can be any combination,” the directive stated.
The “gender-cap” appears to be the result of a stereotypical perception that women who act in bars and establishments belong to a certain class of society, according to a panel of justices KM Joseph and S Ravindra Bhat, who overturned the Bombay High Court decision.
The High Court dismissed a challenge to the licence provision that only four female and four male singers or performers perform on the orchestra bars’ stage.
According to the Supreme Court, the cap directly violates the performers’ and licence owners’ basic rights under Article 15 (1) and Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
“As this court’s authorities have frequently stated, whenever challenges arise, particularly those based on gender, courts must carefully examine whether, whether, and to what degree the challenged practises, rules, or norms are rooted in historical prejudice, gender stereotypes, and paternalism.
“Such beliefs have no place in our society; recent events have revealed that sectors once thought to be exclusively male ‘bastions,’ such as military service, are no longer so.
“Similarly, in the current case, this court holds that the impugned condition’s gender cap is void,” the panel wrote.
The Supreme Court expressed the expectation that the current decision would mute the lingering and dissonant sound of a cymbal that had been silenced by prior Supreme Court decisions.
“The impugned judgement is hereby set aside for the grounds stated above.”
“It is hereby declared that the condition imposing a gender cap on the number of women or men who can perform in orchestras and bands, in bars licenced under the Licensing and Performance for Public Amusement including Cabaret Performance, Melas and Tamashas Rule, 1960 and other allied provisions,” the Supreme Court said.
The High Court had dismissed the appeal to the Commissioner of Police’s conditions, ruling that the right to impose them was derived from the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, and the rules enacted under it.
