Bombay High Court pulls up Maharashtra govt over age limit on film sets: ‘How can you stop people from doing work?’

The Bombay High Court has pulled up the Maharashtra government for barring those above the age of 65 from joining work on film sets.

The Bombay High Court on Friday pulled up the Maharashtra government for barring those above the age of 65 years from shooting and participating in any shooting-related work in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bollywood singer Alka Yagnik performs on the first day of shooting of a television show. (PTI)

A division bench of Justice SJ Kathawala and Justice Riyaz Chagla tagged two petitions, filed by the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA) and actor Pramod Pandey, and slated the matter for further hearing on July 29.

The court asked state government counsel advocate Purnima Kanthariya whether there were any provisions to stop a 70-year-old shop owner from working at his shop, to which Kanthariya responded saying “there wasn’t”.

“How can you stop only people from doing work and earning their livelihood?” the bench asked.

The court, after going through all the facts of the case, appointed senior counsel Sharad Jagtiani as amicus curiae in the matter. IMPPA and Pande were represented by advocate Ashok Saraogi.

“As per the list available with the petitioner, there are thousands of people aged above 65 years who were participating in the shooting of programmes prior to the lockdown. The shootings of such films and programmes have been left in between due to the non-availability of such people,” one of the pleas said.

It said that the guideline in the matter was not practical and was not fair as in no other profession this condition was imposed.

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