​Dance bars were once a quintessential part of the city’s nightlife. Flocks of men would gaze at (fully clothed) women gyrating to sleazy Bollywood numbers. In 2005 the Maharashtra state government banned such establishments, stating that they were a “bad influence” on society. Today India’s Supreme Court will hear the case. Earlier this month it rapped the authorities for stifling a legitimate business activity in the name of “moral policing”. The court contended that in modern times where actors could get intimate on-screen and live-in relationships were de rigueur, the definition of obscenity needed rewriting. The ban has pushed the trade underground. In May police found 68 women in raids on three illegal bars in Mumbai; many were hiding in secret niches inside the walls. Hotel-owners, meanwhile, have found a workaround: they run “orchestra bars” where glassy-eyed men ogle women swaying (but not dancing) behind a karaoke-crooner who accepts song requests from boozy customers.