The Telangana High Court (HC) has provided temporary relief for pubs and bars outside of Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills area, by noting that an earlier court order barring loud music after 10 pm cannot be applied throughout the state. Earlier on September 12, a single judge bench of the HC had banned all pubs from playing loud music after 10 pm and ordered adherence to permissible noise levels. On Monday, October 31, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy ruled that the previous order should have been confined to a few pubs against which residents of Jubilee Hills had complained, and not extended to all of Telangana.
The court was hearing appeals filed by the National Restaurant Association of India and others against the blanket ban, the Times of India reported. Following the September order asking pubs to adhere to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, several pubs approached the High Court seeking relaxation of the 10 pm deadline. Some of them have reportedly asked to be allowed to play music till 1 am on Fridays and Saturdays, and 12 am on the remaining days, as per a 2018 government order. Pub owners had said that the curbs on music were affecting their business and that the restrictions based on complaints from residential areas must not extend to pubs and bars in commercial areas.
The division bench on Monday noted that the previous single judge bench order had gone beyond the request made to it. It called the latter’s extension of the music ban to all pubs invalid, according to The New Indian Express (TNIE). The order in September was passed in response to a petition from Jubilee Hills residents against several bars and pubs including Farzi Cafe, Amnesia Lounge Bar, Dirty Martini, Broadway, and a few other establishments. On Monday, the division bench said that it would hear the appeals from pub owners along with the petitions before the single judge on November 17, TNIE reported.