Check whether current time lies between start hour and end hour (PHP)

I started to think of a function in PHP that checks the current time whether it lies between start hour and end hour. This was a task from my boss a couple of weeks ago. He asked this function to write in order to turn down our web application from 900PM to 400AM and display an appropriate message. I googled for a few minutes and compiled the code below:

[dfads params=’groups=-1′]

[code]
function checkTime($current_time, $start, $end){
/* $current_time = "9:00 pm";
$start = "9:00 pm";
$end = "4:00 am"; */

$date1 = DateTime::createFromFormat(‘H:i a’, $current_time);
$date2 = DateTime::createFromFormat(‘H:i a’, $start);
$date3 = DateTime::createFromFormat(‘H:i a’, $end);

//echo $date1;
if ($date1 >= $date2 || $date1 < $date3)
{
return 1;
}
else{
return 0;
}
}

$curTime = date(‘h:i a’);
$curTime = "9:00 pm";
//echo $curTime;
if(checkTime($curTime, "9:00 pm", "4:00 am")==1){
echo "Server Under Maintenance !!
<div style="color: #cc503f; border: 2px solid red; border-radius: 6px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 600px; height: 200px; padding: 10px; text-align: center;">
<h2>Notice!!!</h2>
<h3>Portal under Maintenance from 9PM to 4AM. Please visit back soon.</h3>
</div>
";
exit;
}
[/code]

[dfads params=’groups=-1′]