Summary:
Kochi, Mar 17 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Thursday said production units in the film industry have to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with complaints of sexual harassment if they employ more than 10 workers, but political parties do not need to maintain such a panel as they do not have an employer-employee relationship with their members.
The court said the requirement of maintaining an ICC was also mandatory for other film and media related organisations, like Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) and FEFKA, Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce and Kerala Film Producers Association, if they are employing more than 10 workers.
While issuing the directions, a bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly also said that it was desirous of seeing a joint committee being constituted by the various film industry organisations, including Association of Malayalam Movie Actors (AMMA) and FEFKA, to deal with instances of sexual harassment of women at the workplace.
It said that such a joint committee "would definitely render sufficient confidence to women actor artists and other employees and workers employed by the production units".
It would also "protect the dignity, and make the right to life and personal liberty of the women in the film industry more meaningful and fruitful".
The ruling and observations of the bench came on three separate petitions seeking constitution of a grievance redressal mechanism against sexual harassment in film, media and political organisations in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.