Planning a Pub Crawl in Mumbai? Better Get a Drinking Pass

Here's a little travel advisory for folks visiting India: If you're planning to party in Mumbai, remember your one-day drinking pass. No, we've never had to use a one-day drinking pass and our brains are having a hard time processing those four words in succession, but that pass is now required because of one Addional Commissioner Vasant Dholble cracking down on partying by invoking laws drafted years ago, according to The New York Times' Gayatri Rangachari Shah. "Individual drinkers must possess a valid drinking permit. Most people appear to have been unaware of this rule," writes Shah. "Because of the crackdown, several bars and nightclubs have begun issuing one-time permits for guests upon entry. The actual law, as Reuters' Anuja Jaiman reports, is a 63-year-old prohibition law that requires anyone over the age of 25 to have a drinking permit that was hardly enforced until now. "Individuals caught drinking without a permit could be fined 50,000 rupees or jailed for five years," writes Jaiman. Fazal Sheikh, the manager of a bar located in Bandra told The Times, "It is the law that everyone needs to carry a liquor license on them, so if our guests are not carrying one with them then we supply them with a one-time license."

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Shah also lists a few restaurants and hotspots that have been raided and their toll on business. And it seems like places like Cafe Zoe in Parel and Hawaiian Shack in Bandra are still rating high on travel websites, but have no recent mentions of the raids. That doesn't mean there isn't a growing dissent, like an almost 8,000-strong Facebook group vowing to protect your/Mumbai's right to party.