A person needs to know the procedure to obtain hookah bar license in the city of Mumbai.

Response

As per your query, in the city of Mumbai, you can not serve Hookah. However, herbal hookah’s are allowed. In a recent judgement, the Bombay High Court has permitted a city based restaurateur to serve herbal hookah, purportedly tobacco-free, at his roof-top restaurant after the petitioner argued that provisions of an amended act cannot be applied to the product.

You must approach the Municipal Corporation of your locality and apply for the Hookah permit license there with certain conditions. The commissioner may then grant or reject the application based on certain criterias such as the location of your restaurant, the fire exit, shop and establishment license, Music license, GST license, Staff License and Labor Registration, Pollution certificate, Hookah bar license cost amongst many others. If satisfied, the BMC will then give a trade license.

The license permit costs govern the hookah license costs as settled by the Government of India. It may vary from state to state and license requirements and pre-dominantly dependent on the kind of place where the hookah is served. For instance, the hookah can either be served at a restaurant, a hotel holding star ratings, clubs with government officials as its members. The name of these licenses is like L1, L2, till L19. So, these are decided by the local government.

Reference: No Specific Law Applicable

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