DHANYAMO Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) It is an issue of judicial invalidation of legislation: Rule 27A of the Foreign Liquor Rules is impugned as being violative of Articles 14, 15 (1) & (3), 16 (1) and 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution of India. Uncluttered by statutory references, the issue is whether a woman can be deprived of employment solely on the ground of the alleged disadvantage she suffers from owing to her gender. In the present instance, women are sought to be discriminated against because of their sex, and nothing else.

(2.) The petitioners, working as waitresses/restaurant assistants in a bar attached to a hotel in Trivandrum, faced the threat of termination from their employment with the introduction of a new Rule governing the Bars attached to hotels. As per the amendment of the Foreign Liquor Rules notified as S.R.O. No. 959/2013 dated 9/12/2013, a new rule as Rule 27A is incorporated prohibiting women from being employed "in any capacity for serving liquor on the licensed premises". In terms of the same notification, in Form FL-3 under the heading "Conditions", a new condition has been incorporated as condition No. 9A which also contains the same prohibition for engaging women in the Bars. The raison d'etre for the introduction of Rule 27A of the Rules and the consequential procedural measures is that the Government has received complaints that women are being employed to serve liquor in the licensed bars.

(3.) Both the petitioners, who are working as waitresses or bartenders in an FL-3 licenced hotel, have a grievance that if the newly incorporated rule is allowed to hold its field, the petitioners are bound to lose their jobs and, thus, their livelihood. The petitioners do aver that their employer has already informed them that the management is not able to provide them any other employment in the hotel, and that they are bound to be terminated very soon. The petitioners' Exhibit P5 representation, submitted to the respondents 1 to 3, does not seem to have evoked any response.