While the Supreme Court's verdict easing stringent restrictions on dance bars came as a relief to many on Thursday, dance bar owners and performers should be ready to face several hurdles back home, as the state government is mulling on delaying licensing and stalling re-launching the enterprise first banned in 2005.

While the state government said it was in the process of studying the apex court's order, top officials said they had been instructed to find ways to make things difficult for prospective bar operators or those who held such licences before the ban came into existence. Till the time new restrictions are not in place, the licensing authority — the police department — may always delay approvals by raising a question or two, as it had been doing in the past.