NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that statutory restrictions on women serving liquor in the Capital's bars, hotels and restaurants were violative of Articles 19 (1) (f), 14 and 15 of the Constitution guaranteeing the citizens the right to practise any profession, equality before law and prohibition of discrimination on ground of sex.

However, a Division bench comprising Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice H.R. Malhotra clarified that women cannot be compelled to work as bartenders.

Taking an undertaking to this effect from the Hotels and Restaurants Association of India, one of the petitioners in the matter, that notwithstanding the challenge raised in the petition, no woman employee would be compelled to serve in a bar in case she has any objection in doing so, the Court ruled: ``An undertaking on affidavit to that effect has also been filed in the Court. We hold the petitioner (Hotels and Restaurants Association of India), and its members to be bound by such an undertaking and make it clear that as per such undertaking no woman employee in the hospitality industry serving in a hotel or restaurant or any allied service shall be compelled to work in a bar in case she has any objection to such deployment.''

The 25-page judgment came on a bunch of petitions by four women working in the hospitality industry or hotel management graduates looking for a career in the industry and the Hotels and Restaurants Association of India challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 30 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914.

In their submission, they said that Section 30 of the Act imposed unconstitutional restrictions on the rights of women to pursue their profession in hotel management and the other facets of the hospitality industry.

They further submitted that their fundamental rights under Articles 19 (1) (f) and 14 and 15 of the Constitution were being violated.

Striking down Section 30 of the Act, operational here, the Bench said: ``We thus declare that Section 30 of the Act is violative of Articles 19 (1) (f), 14 and 15 of the Constitution and inoperative to the extent that it imposes restrictions on employment of women in any part of the licensed premises in which liquor or intoxicating drugs are consumed by the public.''

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