Crack down on rooftop bars and pubs, insists a PIL plea before Madras High Court

PIL filed in Madras HC to crack down on unsafe rooftop bars and pubs posing threat to public safety.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Director General of Police (DGP), Greater Chennai City Commissioner of Police (CoP) and the Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise to crack down on bars, especially rooftop bars, and pubs which flout the norms applicable to them and thereby pose a threat to public safety.

Advocate V. Vigneswar, 25, of Ashok Nagar had filed the PIL petition. He also sought constitution of a committee headed by a retired High Court judge to examine the safety measures to be followed by the rooftop bars and submit its recommendations to the State government apart from a direction to close down all bars and pubs that offer hookah (tobacco smoking instrument) services.

In his affidavit, the litigant recalled that a young software professional had died due to suspected drug overdose at an unauthorised rave party organised at the rooftop of a shopping mall at Anna Nagar in Chennai in May 2022. The police had no clue about the event until the death of the youngster. The law enforcing authorities found the liquor, served in the party, to have been procured illegally.

Thereafter, in March 2024, the ceiling of a pub on Chamiers Road in Alwarpet collapsed killing three of its employees. Subsequently, in August, the Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise cancelled the liquor licences that had been issued to as many as five star hotels in Chennai on the ground that they had misused the licences meant for serving guests and permitted outsiders to consume alcohol.

All these incidents highlight the perilous nature in which the bars and pubs in the city function and the lack of regular monitoring, the petitioner complained. He also claimed that most of the rooftop bars were open to public view and that they illegally provide dance floors too thereby paving way for unnecessary confrontation between customers and complaints of sexual abuse.

Also stating that use of hookah could not be permitted in any bar or pub, the litigant said, the social media was being misused to invite youngsters to hookah parlours. He said that many rooftop bars also fail to provide fire safety measures and adequate emergency exits. He insisted on putting in place an elaborate mechanism to keep a check over the functioning of bars and pubs.