Work permit

Bangalore, May 14: The Karnataka government today buckled under criticism and announced it would scrap a new law that virtually banned women from working night shifts.

Labour minister Iqbal Ansari, who had piloted the legislation last month, said the government would promulgate an ordinance to revoke the law, which would have come into effect from July 1.

“The law department has been asked to prepare a draft to annul the relevant sections of the Karnataka Shops and Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2007, passed last fortnight,” the minister said after informal discussions among cabinet ministers.

The law had sought to prevent women from working between 8 pm and 6 am, except in the sunrise sectors and some essential services, by threatening their employers with jail and fines for violation. It applied to shops, commercial establishments, hotels and the print media, but spared infotech firms, biotechnology, the electronic media, BPOs and hospitals.

Employers who violated the amended act were to be punished with jail terms of up to three months or a fine of Rs 10,000. A second offence would have brought six months’ jail or a Rs 20,000 fine.

The ban received governor T.N. Chaturvedi’s assent, but was condemned by women’s organisations and trade bodies, some of which threatened to move court.

The chairperson of the state women’s commission, Pramila Nesargi, said: “The government has no power to impose such a ban because it is in violation of the Constitution under Article 21, which gives both men and women the right to life.”

The minister, however, insisted the ban already existed under the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, and that the amendment merely gave the act more teeth.

Biocon chairman-cum-managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, one of the first to protest the ban, said: “I am amazed at the minister’s retrograde thinking. How can the government allow such a thing to happen? Anyway, I am glad he has been shown his place.”