Mumbai, April 4 -- The Bombay High Court on Thursday observed that a restaurant and bar cannot be denied a licence to run live orchestra performances based on "misplaced apprehension" about law and order problems. The licensing authority's order denying such a licence to Hausa restaurant and bar in Sanpada, Navi Mumbai, "appeared to be without any objective basis", a single judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar said, setting aside the order. The court said that the licensing authority, while denying the licence to the establishment, had relied on objections raised by citizens "which were evidently based on an incorrect impression" that granting the licence would turn it into a dance bar. The court also noted that the licensing authority had granted such licences to 43 other establishments in Navi Mumbai which indicated that "the staging of orchestra/live music performances cannot be said to be per se indecent or profane". Shivaji Waghralkar, the owner of Hausa restaurant and bar, was first denied the licence to operate an orchestra by the Navi Mumbai police commissioner - the licensing authority - on February 24, 2025. He then filed an entertainment licence appeal before the divisional commissioner, Konkan division, which too was denied on August 14, 2025. Before the High Court, Waghralkar said that while his establishment had the licences to serve food and foreign liquor, he had sought a performance licence to hold live orchestra performances. He clearly stated that he did not want to run a dance bar. According to Waghralkar, vested interests ran a "misinformation campaign" against him and the licence was denied to him "on the basis of alleged objections received from 23 co-operative housing societies, 232 citizens/ local public representatives and one business association, media reports." He had raised a slew of objections to the orders denying him the licence, claiming that two other bars in the very same building had been granted the licence to play pre-recorded loud music. The state government told the court that the licence was denied "on the basis of objective material" and "the grant of orchestra licence has the propensity to create a serious law and order situation". Licensing was a discretionary decision of the licensing authority that could best assess the possibility of a law and order situation, the government's lawyer told the court. Waghralkar's lawyer argued that despite a categorical undertaking that he would not operate a dance bar, his client had suffered "on the basis of a misinformation campaign". The court said that the question of the justifiability of the "objections based on morality" had cropped up because the activity of running an orchestra bar is "regulated by statute and rules, and is not per se immoral, dangerous or inherently injurious". The court directed the licensing authority to issue the performance licence to Waghralkar within four weeks....