KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Thursday held that movie production houses have to form internal complaints committees (ICCs) to deal with sexual harassment complaints as specified under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013.
However, the division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly held that political parties are exempt from forming such committees as per the 2013 law, which is commonly known as the POSH Act, as there is no employer-employee relationship.
The court order came on two public interest litigations filed by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) for setting up ICCs for members of Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA), Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce, Kerala Film Producers Association, Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), Malayalam Cinema Technicians Association (MACTA) and Kerala Film Distributors Association. Kochi-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, Research and Advocacy (CCRRA) had filed the PIL for constituting ICCs in political parties.
The judgment said the production unit of each film industry is an establishment employing actors, artists and other workers and such units have to maintain an ICC if they are engaging more than 10 workers, as contemplated under the POSH Act.
The organizations had contended that they have no direct employer-employee relationship with actors or artists and they cannot control individual production units.
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The state government had submitted that it is constrained to legally compel these organizations to form ICCs in the absence of an employer-employee relationship but it felt they should voluntarily formulate guidelines to ensure safety of women.
Referring to Section 6 of the POSH Act, the court pointed out that even if the organizations are not bound to constitute ICCs, a complaint can be filed with the local complaints committee. Therefore, the local complaints committee in a district should be headed by a district magistrate or additional district magistrate or the collector or deputy collector as per Section 5 of the Act.
“To put it short, so far as the film industry is concerned, the production unit is the workplace of an individual film and therefore, each production unit would have to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee, which alone can deal with the harassment against women in contemplation of the provisions of the Act,” the court held.
In addition to the movie production units, the organizations representing actors and technicians should also form ICCs if they are engaging 10 workers or more to manage their offices and have women workers, whether employed on wages or not, the court ordered. If any organizations in the film industry are employing less than 10 workers, such complaints can be filed with the local complaints committee as specified under Sections 6 and 9 of the POSH Act, it said.
As AMMA volunteered to appoint an ICC, the court recorded the same in the judgment and allowed it to notify members of the ICC in accordance with law. While political parties are exempt from forming ICCs, any women employee subjected to sexual harassment can file a complaint with the local complaints committee under Sections 6 and 9 of the Act, it said.
The court said though each organization in the film industry are obligated to form ICCs, a joint committee is desirable as it would definitely render sufficient confidence to women actors, artistes and other employees and workers of production units. This would in turn protect the dignity, and make the right to life and personal liberty of women in the film industry more meaningful and fruitful, it said.
