A Division of the High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State government and the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) on a writ petition filed by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) seeking a directive to AMMA to constitute a complaints committee on sexual harassment, in terms of the Supreme Court guidelines in the Vishaka case and under the provisions of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The notice was issued by a Bench headed by Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy when the petition filed by Rima Kallingal, president, Women in Cinema Collective, came up for hearing. According to her, the Supreme Court guidelines in the Vishaka case as well as the provisions of the law relating to the prevention of the sexual harassment at work places had cast an obligation on AMMA to constitute a complaint committee.
Adequate remedy
The failure of AMMA to constitute a committee had left its members without any adequate remedy against sexual harassment faced by them in their profession.
The setting up of a committee was all the more necessary now that revelations of sexual assault and harassment of women in film industries across the country were coming out,she added.
