Court relief for Mumbai dance bar waiter accused of 'encouraging' obscenity

The court observed that the petitioner waiter was only found to be discharging his duty of serving the customers food and drink as per his employment profile.

In Short

• Police raided a Mumbai bar where waiter worked in April 2016
• Bar girls, manager, waiters arrested in alleged case of obscenity
• Court found waiter did not commit any explicit act of obscenity

The Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed an FIR against a Mumbai waiter who was arrested during a police raid in an alleged case of obscenity at a dance bar in 2016.

The court said that the petitioner waiter was only found to be discharging his duty of serving the customers food and drink as per his employment profile.

The prosecution's case was that, on April 14, 2016, after the police received information that women referred to as bar girls at the New Park Side Bar and Restaurant, were dancing and making obscene gestures.

During the police raid, it was found that the girls were dancing to entertain customers sitting in the restaurant and making provocative gestures and were trying to get physical with the customers. The owners of the bar, a manager, another manager-cum-cashier and nine stewards/waiters along with 11 customers were arrested by the police, the prosecution added.

The Petitioner was one of the waiters, serving the customers in the bar/restaurant. All the accused were arrested and charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

However, the bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Neela Gokhale went through the material presented by the prosecution and observed that perusal of the provisions of the bare section indicates that, in order to attract the ingredients of the IPC offences, it is necessary that the accused person indulges in doing any obscene act in a public place or singing, reciting or uttering any obscene song in or near a public place.

"There is no material on record to indicate that the petitioner is either doing any obscene act or singing or uttering any obscene song. The petitioner was serving as a waiter in the said restaurant and there is no allegation against him that he himself was indulging in any of the obscene acts or was abetting it", noted the bench.

The bench added that there is only a generic statement by the policeman and other witnesses that the waiters were also encouraging the women artists to dance in an obscene and provocative manner.

"The petitioner is not found to have been doing any explicit act that can demonstrate an external manifestation of the term ‘encouraging’, the court said.