The Supreme Court on Monday said it would strike down a 59-year-old gender discriminating rule of the Cine Costume Make-up Artists and Hair Dressers Association (CCMAA), which made women ineligible to be make-up artists in the Indian film industry, classifying them as hairdressers, reported the Indian Express.

On the writ petition WP 78/2013 of Charu Khurana, an alumnus of Cinema Make-up School California, and other make-up artists who were denied make-up artist cards by the CCMAA, a bench of justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit directed the CCMAA to “on its own” delete the “gender-biased” clause enabling this discrimination.

According to the Express, Justices Misra and Lalit said in court:

“How can this discrimination continue? We will not permit this. It cannot be allowed under our Constitution. Why should only a male artist be allowed to put make-up? How can it be said that only men can be make-up artists and women can be hairdressers? We don’t see a reason to prohibit a woman from becoming a make-up artist if she is qualified”

“You better delete this clause on your own. Remove this immediately. We are in 2014, not in 1935. Such things cannot continue even for a day”

Khurana’s counsel told the court that the state government had in an order already directed the association to delete the clause but the association had not complied. The order stated simply that the association should respond by 10 November why the rule should stand, but according to the Express, the bench assured Khurana that if the association did not come back with a “positive response”, the Supreme Court would order the clause’s deletion, which the union’s contend protects men’s livelihoods.