RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“The Impact of the 11:30pm curfew rule and

ban of live music at hotels and bars on the
hospitality and entertainment industry in
Bangalore”
“Licensing and controlling of places of public entertainment order,
2005“.

Group 12
Swaran.joji – 0920927
Dhruv Gupta - 0920907
Himanshu Sinha – 0920908
Renju Kuriakose - 0920944
Isha Soni - 0920960
Abstract:
Bangalore has a large number of pubs. The safe atmosphere of the city and the young
population promoted the pub culture. Owing to this the city came to be known as the pub city.
Presence of the UB group added fuel to the flame.

To tackle the burgeoning crime and accident rates in the city, the police introduced an order
targeted at dance bars called “licensing and controlling of places of public entertainment order,
2005“. The law required all places serving liquor to close by 11:30pm. The law was imposed
on all forms of live music which included discotheques, concerts, restraunts etc. This project
aims to study the economic and social impact of the 11:30 curfew rule in the hospitality and the
entertainment industry in Bangalore.
Acknowledgements
Contents
Literature Review:
The Karnataka Excise licence rule does not permit gambling, get-togethers, dancing
or any live band performances in places serving liquor. The act which was brought in action
in 2005 was met with a lot of hue and cry. The hospitality and entertainment industry were up
in arms against the move alleging a curb of their fundamental right to freedom. The industry
has always received step motherly treatment.

“Cow sheds turn into dance bars”

The Hindu, Sept 09, 2006”

The move comes due to the exponential increase in the number of illegal clubs running
without proper licence. Many of the discotheques were actually farmhouses, cow sheds and
silkworm rearing sheds. Hence to restore law and order the police cracked down on these
illegal activities, the order was strictly enforced by the police.

Cases of drunken driving double in 2004

The Hindu, Jan 18, 2005”

BANGALORE, JAN. 17. The M.S. Ramaiah Hospital treated 13 persons injured in road
accidents in the early hours of January 1. Most of them were victims of drunken driving.

Two years after it was launched, the campaign of the city traffic police and non-governmental
organisations to curb drunken driving appears to have run out of steam. The number of cases
of drunken driving almost doubled during 2004, according to figures compiled by the city
police.

During the year, 18,595 cases were booked by the traffic police against drivers who had
consumed alcohol beyond safe limits. The number of cases booked in 2003 were 10,163.
Interestingly, close to 75 per cent of those booked for driving under the influence of alcohol
last year were two-wheeler riders.

Weekend binges?
Another fact that emerged from the statistics was that almost 90 per cent of the cases were
booked on Saturdays and Sundays, mostly through evenings and nights. The police feel that
mental health experts should examine whether this is a pointer to more people going for
weekend binges. The cases of driving under the influence of alcohol go up during festivals.
New Year's Eve accounts for the largest number of cases booked on a single day.

Police chief rules out allowing discos without licences

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Police Commissioner Shankar M. Bidari on Monday said that the police
would not permit functioning of discotheques without valid licence, and that they were
merely implementing the order of Licencing and Controlling of Places of Public
Entertainment. He, however, said that there was no prohibition on the use of background
music in bars and restaurants.

Mr. Bidari’s reaction comes in light of the opposition raised by a section of people after the
police closed down 32 discotheques that were operating without valid licence. The action was
initiated after the matter was brought to the notice of the Police Commissioner during the
hearing of a writ petition filed by the Live Band Owners’ Association challenging before the
High Court the decision not to grant licences.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, Mr. Bidari said that the police was implementing the
order issued under the provisions of Karnataka Police Act, 1963. “We are concerned about
the safety and security of people,” he said. According to the order, live bands, discotheques
and cabarets, have to abide by 13 conditions for obtaining licence from the Police
Commissioner. One of the conditions is to conduct the shows between 10 a.m. and 11.30 p.m.

“Now, ban on live bands in Bangalore pubs”

Times Now, 10 August 2008

The general manager of NYX club reports that there has been a 60% reduction in the
revenues. Even on Saturdays which is prime time for discos the attendance is very low. Thus
it shows that there is a shift in the interests of people.
“Licensing and controlling of places of public entertainment order, 2005. “

In 2005, the government of Karnataka passed an order to curb the start of dance bars present in
Mumbai, in Bangalore since they promoted prostitution, drug trafficking and many other illegal
activities. The order generalized the dance bars as entertainment spots. Thus the order cast a
shadow on discotheques and all forms of live music in Bangalore. All places serving liquor
were forcibly shut down at 11:30pm by the police. Later the law was extended to all live
performances which included places that do not serve liquor. This order has left musicians and
Disco jockeys(DJ) high and dry. Many of whom have left the city to look for better
opportunities.
Introduction:
Few cities in India have the allure to motivate people to move to Bangalore and settle. The
pensioner’s paradise, Garden city, Silicon valley give enough rationale for people to make
their decision to work here. Blessed with good climate, Bangalore is not as fast paced,
polluted and populated as the metros in India. Bangalore has carved a niche for itself in the
international arena in growth rates with major multinational companies setting up their
branches here.

The growth of Bangalore has been rapid. New companies IT and non IT sprang up, some
were successful and many bombed but the city still grows. With the availability of jobs and
skilled labour in India, Bangalore was and is a popular destination to work.

Previously, Bangalore was known as the pensioner’s paradise. But in the last decade has
witnessed a large influx of the younger population. Owing to this, a large number of pubs and
night clubs mushroomed post 2000. The culture diversity of Bangalore helped the cause as
that lifestyle was open to the pub culture.

The rise in the number of party goers in Bangalore gave rise to an increase in the number of
accidents. In the line of the strip clubs in many western countries ‘dance bars’ started in
Bangalore. This led to a rise in human trafficking, prostitution, and drug trafficking. By 2004
the number of accidents due to drunken driving increased to an alarming rate. Due to this, the
traffic police took matter into their own hands and brought in curbs to prevent such incidents.
This was enforced by a law called ““Licensing and controlling of places of public
entertainment order, 2005“.
The law required the pubs to shut down by 11:30. This law was strictly enforced by the police
much to the dissent of the pub hoppers.
“Licensing and controlling of places of public entertainment
order, 2005“.
According to the order1, obtaining licence from the commissioner, who is the licensing
authority, is mandatory for running live band shows. With the new order, framed in
accordance with the Supreme Court ruling, coming into effect from Friday, one should obtain
a licence from the commissioner for running live band shows.

The commissioner has set as many as 13 terms and conditions for granting licence. The
licence holder should conduct the shows only between 10 a.m. and 11.30 p.m.; ensure the
safety of women staff/performers and provide transportation to them from their houses to the
place of work; the stage and the seating area at licensed places should be clearly demarcated;
there shall be a distance of at least five feet between the stage and first row of the seating
area, there shall be no mixing of performers with customers/guests on or off the stage.

The licensed entertainment centre shall not promote gambling, gaming activities, prostitution,
allow the use of narcotic substances and shall not organise shows that are immoral, obscene
or indecent.

The licence holder should ensure that there is no obscenity or indecency in the dress,
movement or gesture of the performers, the order says. The Live Band Restaurant Owners'
Association had questioned in the High Court the Licensing and Controlling of Places of
Public Entertainment Order passed by the commissioner on May 24, 2005.

The High Court on September 9, 2005 quashed the commissioner's order and observed that
the said order be treated as a draft and fresh order be passed after inviting objections, if any
from the petitioners and public.

The court had directed that written objections should be submitted to the commissioner
within 30 days. The commissioner, after examining the objections he had received, has come
out with the modified order. The Licensing Authority will accept applications for granting
licences for live band/cabaret/discothèque in accordance with new order, according to a
release.

1
“Reopening of live band joints likely to be delayed”- The Hindu Dec 10 2005
 Table showing the role of various parties involved in the issue.

Involved party Role played Failure Responsibility

The industry has not

taken any concrete steps
The revenue brought in by to ensure the safety of
the industry form a part of the customers. Safety of customers:
Owners and the taxes to the The incidents of Customer safety should
management of government as there is a drunken driving are on a be the primary concern
Industry sizable number of clubs in rise and until recently of the pubs owners.
Bangalore and they pay a no steps were taken to
lot of taxes. combat that. Some clubs
promoted illegal
activities like providing
drugs etc.
Lack of an adequate
Their job is to regulate and police force.
ensure safety in pubs. The police force is Reduction of accidents
They ensure that there are overworked. They are in the city. One way to
Police no unlawful activities usually posted as do so is curbing
happening in the clubs. security to VIPs. Hence incidents of drunken
They crack down on they cannot take further driving.
unlicensed pubs and burden of increasing
illegal rave parties. night time security.

They fail to report any

They help in promoting inconsistencies due to They must take a stand
the culture. They set the fear of losing their job. against illegal activities
People working standards in the hospitality and must report them to
industry in terms of the police.
service.

They take part in illegal They must refrain from

They play the revenue
Customers generating part of the
industry.
activities as part of taking part in activities
pleasure, without like drunken driving,
fearing consequences. rave parties which
adversely affects the
security of the city.
Interviews with Industry members:

Vishnuvardhan Bhat, Hospitality consultant, Bangalore

“It is sheer irony by which the government policies try to dwarf down growing business in
the name of moral policing. There are many other ways to control illegal activities if the
government takes a streamlined approach. But, our government is always trying to take the
easy way out rather than finding a beneficial solution. Nightlife has been severely affected
due to the ban. Nowadays, Bangalore and people just depend upon farm house parties, which
again are for the elite. Pubs, discos, lounge bars, restaurants etc are a way of life for people
who work hard the entire day and just want a place to be themselves. This compounds the
problem of safety of the people. While values plays an eminent role in governing our lives,
people are mature enough to understand their limits. You just cannot point out a couple of
high profile cases to put an embargo of such extremes.”

Jason D Souza, Pub owner

“With Bangalore shutting dance bars, pubs and food business has been significantly affected.
It is all about perception either from the customer or from the police. We have pubs and
lounge bars, which did good business till they banned dance bars. People do not understand
that there is a huge difference between a lounge bar/pub and a dance bar. The Police now
come and ask us to close before 11.30 pm. People just do not get enough time to settle down.
The foot fall in our outlet has reduced drastically since the ban.”

Rahul Akrekar, Restaurateur

“Moral Policing is an absurd and medieval concept. People everywhere are working hard and
at the end of the day they just want sometime to chill but because of something like this, one
just cannot have the best at the end of the day. We have very absurd laws and rules in the
country, and the policy making process is totally without focus. Such concepts are just killing
creativity, which will finally reflect in our culture, in the long term. Finally, we will just end
up with a bunch of boring people in the country.”
Analysis:

Data validity:

Descriptive Statistics

Mean Std. Deviation N

Frequency 3.2800 .72955 50
Age 2.2600 .66425 50
Sex 1.3200 .47121 50
Occupation 3.88 1.837 50
Income 1.7000 .78895 50
Disposable income 1.7200 .78350 50
Dinner freq 3.2200 .88733 50
Alcohol 1.6400 .66271 50
Time 2.4200 .94954 50
Expenditure 1.3800 .56749 50
Time of closing 2.7800 .78999 50
Safety 2.4600 .67643 50
Rave 2.7200 .72955 50
Incidents 1.1600 .37033 50
Other sources 3.0400 1.19455 50
International tag 2.2400 .89351 50
Accidents decreased 2.1400 .63920 50

ANOVAb
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 17.264 16 1.079 4.039 .000a
Residual 8.816 33 .267

Total 26.080 49

a. Predictors: (Constant), accidents decreased, Income, international tag, other sources, time of closing, rave,
incidents, time, Sex, dinner freq, alcohol, Occupation, safety, expenditure, Age, Disposable income.
b. Dependent Variable: frequency
 Residuals Statisticsa

Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N

Predicted Value 1.4792 4.9306 3.2800 .59357 50
Residual -.96627 1.13856 .00000 .42417 50
Std. Predicted Value -3.034 2.781 .000 1.000 50
Std. Residual -1.869 2.203 .000 .821 50
a. Dependent Variable: frequency

Figure 1
Figure 2
Sex * safety Cross tabulation

Count
safety
a u d Total
Sex M 25 7 2 34
F 7 6 3 16
Total 32 13 5 50

Figure 3
 Occupation * frequency Crosstabulation
Count
frequency Total
Sex never rarely weekends often everyday
M Occupation IT industry 0 0 3 2 0 5
BPO 0 2 2 2 1 7
self employed 0 0 3 2 0 5
Student 0 0 10 4 0 14
Service industry 0 0 1 0 0 1
Engineer 0 0 1 0 0 1
Other 1 0 0 0 0 1
Total 1 2 20 10 1 34
F Occupation IT industry 0 2 1 3

BPO 0 0 1 1

manager 0 0 1 1

self employed 0 0 1 1

Student 2 3 4 9

Engineer 0 1 0 1

Total 2 6 8 16
 Disposable income * frequency Crosstabulation
Count

frequency

never rarely weekends often everyday Total

Disposableincome <10k 1 2 11 9 0 23
10-20k 0 2 11 5 1 19
30-40k 0 0 4 3 0 7
> 40k 0 0 0 1 0 1
Total 1 4 26 18 1 50
 Age * frequency Crosstabulation
Count

frequency Total

never rarely weekends often everyday

Age 18-21 0 0 3 0 1 4
22-25 1 3 14 13 0 31
26-29 0 1 7 5 0 13
>30 0 0 2 0 0 2
Total 1 4 26 18 1 50
Accident rates in Bangalore2:
21 lakhs by December 2004, a phenomenal rate of increase 289% and 278% respectively
during the mentioned period . Out of the total 21 lakhs registered vehicles in Bangalore,
15.42 lakh vehicles account for 2 wheelers and 3.3 lakhs vehicles account for cars, which
means that 88.17% of total vehicles are personal vehicles. This does not include the floating
vehicle population.

Strength of Traffic Police ( 2007)

DCP ACPs PIs PSI ASI HCs PCs TOTAL 

02 08 229 147 277 687 1620 2863

Vehicle Population in Bangalore City

Year Wise
Yea 198 198 199 199 200 200 200 200 2005(30
r  0 5 0 5 0 2 3 4 .05.05)
Tota
143 173 191 215
l 175 306 601 870 227223
805 892 234 748
Vehi 325 589 059 659 9
7 9 1 0
cles

Total Vehicles
2500000

2000000

1500000

1000000 Total Vehicles

500000

0
)
80 85 90 95 00 02 03 04 .0
5
19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 05
0 .
3
0 5(
20
  

2
www.Bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in
Vehicle Population in Bangalore City Category Wise ( up to 30.06.2007)

Two
L.M.V A/R H.T.V. H.G.V Others  Total
Wheelers 
2101174 434428     91899 77842 94921  82300 2880426

Road Accident Scenario of Bangalore City

Non-
Year  Fatal  Killed  Injured Total
Fatal 
2001 668 703 8358 6929 9026
2002 783 820 9073 7577 9856
2003 843 883 9662 7980 10505
2004 875 903 8226 6921 9101
2005 796 836 6782 5899 7578
2006 880 915 6681 6048 7561
2007(upto31.12.07) 957 981 7469 6591 8426
STATEMENT SHOWING THE NO.OF ROAD ACCIDENT CASES REPORTED/ NO OF
PERSONS KILLED, INJURED & VEHICLE WISE IN BANGALORE CITY FOR THE
YEAR 2007 ( up to 30.06.2007) 

Fatal Cases  Non- Fatal Total

Sl.No. Type of Vehicle   Damage 
Cases  Killed  Cases   Injured  Cases 
1 BMTC Bus  60 60 117 155 46 223
2 KSRTC  5 5 23 22 12 40
3 Factory Bus  2 2 7 9 0 9
4 Private Bus  15 15 43 67 33 91
5 Lorry  100 105 231 341 294 625
6 Car 60 62 709 877 345 1114
18 Taxi 5 5 51 66 38 94
12 Jeep 7 9 33 43 12 52
7 Auto Rickshaw 17 17 137 288 39 293
8 Motor Cycle  70 72 640 730 32 742
9 Scooter 9 9 116 130 9 134
10 Moped  2 2 29 32 2 33
11 Tempo 32 33 195 234 118 345
13 Van 7 7 72 104 32 111
14 Maxi Cab 11 11 46 81 29 86
15 Military Vehicle 1 1 1 2 1 3
16 Un-Known Vehicle  46 48 53 70 3 102
17 Tractor  10 10 27 31 7 44
19 Tanker 5 5 10 17 7 22
20 Cycle  - - - - - -
21 Jataka  - - - - - -
22 Bullock Cart - - - - - -
23 Others  - - 7 8 0 7
  TOTAL 462 476 2626 3283 1043 4131

 
Accidents

Non-
YEAR Fatal Killed Fatal Injured Total
2001 668 703 8358 6929 9026
2002 783 820 9073 7577 9856
2003 843 883 9662 7980 10505
2004 875 903 8226 6921 9101
2005 796 836 6782 5899 7578
2006 880 915 6681 6048 7561
2007 957 981 7469 6591 8426
2008 864 892 6908 6150 7772
2009  737  761  6138  5668 6875

Fatal
1200

1000

800
Fatal
600

400

200

0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Non-Fatal
12000

10000

8000
Non-Fatal
6000

4000

2000

0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

The traffic analysis shows the following:

1. There is a control on the number of fatal and non-fatal accident cases. The law was
implemented in 2005, since then; although the number of vehicles on the road has
increased the number of fatal accidents has not. This could be attributed to the
reduced incidents of drunken driving.
2. Assuming that the number of accidents is a function of the number of vehicles, the
number of vehicles has significantly increased whereas the number of accidents has
reduced.