Make woman member or face contempt, SC tells make-up artists group

The Supreme Court Monday directed the Cine Costume Make-up Artists and Hair Dressers Association (CCMAA) to give its membership to make-up artists Charu Khurana, warning any disregard of its order would attract contempt proceedings against all office bearers.

Asking the CCMAA to accept the two cheques being given by Khurana, a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C. Pant told the association: "You can't discriminate between men and women. Time has come you must accept things in entirety."

The court's order came as Khurana told the court that she had gone to Mumbai twice but the association was neither accepting her cheques nor giving her the certificate of membership.

The court was told that it had by its earlier order it had reduced the membership fee from Rs. 15,000 to Rs.5000 but now had increased it to Rs.1 lakh.

"Do you want to go Tihar (Jail in Delhi)?" the court asked the counsel for the CCMAA while directing that they would hand over a certificate of membership to Khurana or her representative when approached along with the order of the court.

As it asked that the two cheques given by Khurana be handed over to the CCMAA president, who was present in the court, the court said that any failure to give her the certificate would attract contempt of court against office bearers of the association.

The apex court November 10, 2014, had struck down the provision that prohibited women make-up artists and hairdressers from becoming the members of professional association, thus prohibiting them from becoming make-up artists and hairdressers in the film industry.

The court had also struck down the provision of the association that mandated a person to be a resident of Maharashtra for five years to entitle him/her to become a member.

The court's verdict had come on Khurana's petition challenging these two clauses of the association as being discriminatory to women.

Under the provisions, a woman make-up artist and hair-dresser couldn't be a member of the association and thus could not work as such in the industry.