Cuttack, Dec 4: Orissa High Court on Thursday allowed the owners of the bar and restaurant to employ women only with prior permission of the Excise Board.
It said the Excise Board can give permission under sub sections 2 and 4 of section 25 of the Bihar & Odisha Excise Act, 1915.
The bar owners, willing to employ women in musical programmes, will have to apply to the Excise Board within seven days with the detail information about the women to be employed by them, the Court said.
The Board will take a decision in accordance with the aforesaid sections of the Bihar & Odisha Excise Act after verifying the applications within seven days, it said.
The High Court however, made installation of CCTV as mandatory for the bar and restaurant owners.
The directive of the court came while hearing a writ petition filed by the owners of five bars in Bhubaneswar challenging the order of the Excise department to stop musical programmes.
Notably, Commissionerate police had swooped on some bars and restaurants in the Captial City recently in a drive to curb dancing in the bars following a Television Channel report.
