LUCKNOW, Oct. 6 -- Eleven tables, 14 hookahs and 42 people that is what Qaiserbagh police walked into during a late-night raid at a cafe on Monday, in one of the biggest crackdowns on hookah service in Lucknow in recent times. The raid was conducted at Cafe Tales, on the fourth floor above City Hotel, on Bisheshwar Nath Road, Lalbagh, police said.

The raid came days after the Allahabad high court made the legal position on hookah service in Uttar Pradesh clearer: restaurants cannot prepare or serve hookah, even inside designated smoking zones. The recent high court ruling (September 29) rejected the argument that a restaurant can get around the prohibition simply by creating a smoking area. Preparing, serving or facilitating a hookah rem...