New Delhi, Sept. 19: Maharashtra has defended in the Supreme Court its decision to permit dance bars to operate in a restricted manner every day between 6pm and 11.30 pm, saying it was aimed at checking the growing number of sexual assaults on women.

The Fadnavis regime also justified its move to ban liquor and dance bars within a one-km radius of mosques, temples, churches and educational institutions to maintain peace and harmony.

In an affidavit, it rejected the charge that the recent Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women Act, 2016 intended to circumvent the apex court's 2013 judgment quashing the earlier law banning dance bars as "unconstitutional".

The petitioner, Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, had objected to the condition in the new rules that "the bar room where dances are staged shall be open for public only between 6.00pm to 11.30pm". It contended this was a violation of Article 19(1)(g), which provides every citizen the fundamental right to practise any profession.

Countering this, the state said: "...the petitioners have not considered the aspect of safety of the women who perform dance in bar rooms. In case the women who perform dance are required to stay back for long hours at night, there may be some untoward incidents which may result in increase in sexual and other offences related to women."