Mumbai:
Mumbai can celebrate New Year's Eve in pubs and restaurants till 5 am, the Bombay High Court ruled today, cancelling a 1.30 am deadline set by the police which had provoked criticism from senior government ministers and the public.
Hotel and restaurant owners took the police to court and won their case today.
The city's police commissioner, Satyapal Singh had said that the 1.30 am deadline was in the interest of the safety of women. He said that late New Year's celebrations would be tough for an over-worked and under-staffed police force to supervise.
The judge who heard the case rejected that argument. "Did the Shakti Mills gang-rape case happen on New Year's Eve?" he asked, referring to August's sexual assault on a young woman photographer at a deserted textile mill in the heart of the city which made headlines across the country.
Defending its stand, the Mumbai police also said that it had concerns about terror attacks, including an alleged security threat by seven suspects who are missing from a jail in Madhya Pradesh. The judge didn't buy that. "Threat perception to the city will be there all the time. Not just on December 31," he said.
"The point is curtailing legal celebrations will only give rise to hidden ones that might not be in the best spirit of the society," tweeted Aditya Thackeray, the 23-year-old leader of the regional Shiv Sena, which had opposed the police's 1.30 am curfew.
Writer Shobhaa De tweeted, "Heralding a new dawn. Well done HC. Mumbai can party on till 5 a.m. But let's not make it hard on our overworked cops. Behave, children!"