The Kerala High Court on Thursday ordered the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) to fill the 135 vacant posts of Assistants Grade II by accommodating women candidates from the rank list.
The court also directed the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) to advise women candidates against the 135 vacancies reported to it by the corporation in two months.
The court ordered that in order to accommodate women candidates, male candidates in the list and those who had already been appointed in its ware houses and offices should be shifted to its foreign liquor shops.
The managing director should issue appointment orders within one month from the date of advice given by the PSC.
The order came on a writ petition filed by T. Neelima and others. According to them, the application for the post of Assistant Grade II in the liquor shops, warehouses, and office of the corporation had been invited in 2009. In fact, there was no restriction against women candidates applying for the posts. The notifications said that 250 out of the 295 vacancies were in the foreign liquor shops. It also stipulated that women candidates would not be considered for appointment against these vacancies. All the male candidates had been advised from the rank list published in September 2011. The petitioners contended that this was discriminatory and illegal.
The court observed that prohibition against women being employed in liquor shops could not stand in the way of women being employed in the ware houses or in the office of the corporation.
