The High Court on Tuesday directed bar owners to make a representation to the state government it they find any practical and legal difficulties in following the guidelines framed by the government for employing women to serve liquor and disposed of a series of writ petitions filed in this regard.
Bar owners, who had filed a series of petitions requesting the court to restrain the police from frequently interfering in their business, contended that it would be impractical for them to strictly follow all the guidelines. Therefore, Justice A S Boppanna directed the state government to make amendments to the guidelines issued by it in consultation with bar owners if necessary.
Justice Bopanna also directed the bar owners to comply with the guidelines within 90 days instead of 60 day fixed by the government. The guidelines framed by the government for employing women to serve liquor are as follows:
Women employees should wear decent uniform comprising of full trouser and full shirt or a salwar kameez with dupatta and should not vulgarly display the body. The applicant should get approval for the uniform from the competent authority like BBMP or town municipal council by submitting a prototype of the uniform. The women employees should only wear the approved uniform of the establishment during the course of their work.
Establishments that are willing to employ women to serve liquor should make an application in a specified form and the employer should submit the particulars of each employee along with their passport-size photos to the jurisdictional police station and Labour Department within 30 days of obtaining licence.
The employer shall not divulge the particulars of women employees in the place of work to any customer, except in accordance with law. The employer shall be held responsible for any discrepancies in the identity proof documents of the employees in his establishment. No employees, including women, men or transgenders, shall be employed for dancing or any other kind of exhibition and every employee should be entitled to ESI, PF and other benefits.
Whenever any women employee quits her job or the employer hires a new female recruit, the employer has to inform about this to the licencing authority and salary to such employees should be strictly made only through cheque or by ECS transfer or through Net banking. Women employees employed in one establishment should not be allowed to work in other establishments.
Transport facilities to the work place from their homes with adequate security should be provided.
All laws applicable against sexual harassment at work places shall be applicable for women employees in the establishment and the employer shall ensure that women employees are not exploited or subjected to human trafficking. No obscene gestures like flinging currency notes, passing of lewd remarks at women employees should be permitted and the customer should not be allowed to take photos of the women employees.
The employer should provide for continuous CCTV coverage of his establishment and should provide the CCTV footage to the authorities concerned when asked for. Besides employing private agencies for providing security in their premises, the employers should inform the local police station if some suspicious customers, rowdies, anti-social elements, thieves, etc., visit their premises.
Weapons, other than those held by the police, should not be allowed inside the premises for which licence is obtained to employ women to serve liquor.
Kidwai Doctor’s Appointment Upheld
The HC on Tuesday upheld the appointment of Dr M Vijaykumar as the director of surgical department of Kidwai Institute of Oncology. Dr Ashok M Shenoy had filed a writ petition challenging the appointment of Dr Vijaykumar contending that it was made in violation of rules and that Vijaykumar does not know Kannada, which is mandatory for the said post.