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. Two of the petitions were moved by the Women in Cinema Collective, a society for the welfare of women in Indian Cinema, and the third was by Centre for Constitutional Rights Research and Advocacy, an organisation working on issues related to women and children. The petitioners had alleged that AMMA inspite of being the dominant professional association for actor artists in the Malayalam film industry, has failed to set up a grievance redressal mechanism for its members against sexual harassment at the workplace. AMMA, in its defense, had told the court that though a Women Cell Grievance Forum was already in existence and was fully functional, the object of the Act will not be fulfilled as it has no control over the members of Technicians Association and Producers Association. The court, after hearing all the stakeholders, held that "so far as the film industry was concerned, the production unit is the workplace of an individual film and therefore, each production unit would have to constitute an ICC, which alone can deal with the harassment against the women in contemplation of the provisions of Act, 2013". The bench further said that if any of the organisations in the film industry employing women has less than 10 workers, then women can make complaints regarding sexual harassment to the Local Complaints Committee set up in each district by the state government. The court also said that since AMMA has volunteered to appoint a committee to deal with any sexual harassment at its workplace, "we record the same" and directed the association to notify the members of the ICC in accordance with law. With these observations and directions, the petitions were disposed of by the bench. PTI HMP ROH ROH