Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said he favoured a blanket ban on dance bars. This came soon after the Supreme Court passed a ruling allowing regulated dance bars to function in the state. Fadnavis tweeted, "We will examine and press our demand in SC."

The SC on Thursday stayed a state law passed in 2014 banning dance bars in Maharashtra. The judgment also provided licensing authorities the power to regulate “indecent dance performances”, according to the Press Trust of India. The court added that it was the duty of the state police to ensure the dignity of women was protected.

The state law banning dance bars was passed unanimously in June 2014. The state government had amended the Maharashtra Police Act, which allowed dance performances in exempted establishments like three-star and five-star hotels but banned it elsewhere. The law had also overruled earlier judgments of the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court upholding the rights of women bar dancers to follow their profession.

The Maharashtra government had first imposed a ban on dance bars in 2005, putting as many as 75,000 dancers out of work, allegedly pushing them into prostitution.