THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bevco-run retail liquor outlets along with beer and wine parlours could soon see women waiting tables or dispensing your favourite poison. The state's excise department is planning to amend Kerala abkari shops disposal rules, 2002, and foreign liquor rules, 1953, so that restrictions imposed on women from undertaking employment in bar hotels, beer and wine parlours, Bevco outlets and clubs will be removed. The proposal in this regard will be sent to the government soon for ratification.Rules 9A, 16, 20, 27A and 36 of foreign liquor rules and rule 37 of Kerala abkari shops disposal rules clearly lays out that no women should be employed in any capacity in a toddy shop, foreign liquor outlets including Bevco and beer and wine shops or clubs. The excise department is trying to change the rules following two high court ruling on the subject in favour of women.The order of a single bench of the high court in 2013 by Justice Dama Sheshadri Naidu in Dhanyamol C J versus State of Kerala case said that “it needs not much cogitation to hold that rule 27A of Kerala Foreign Liquor Rules as well as condition 9A.. fall foul of the Constitutional scheme of gender equality as has been spelt out in articles 14, 15 (1) and (2) and 16 (1) and (2) of the Constitution“.Subsequently, in another order by the high court in Sanuja B versus Kerala State Beverages Corporation case in 2016, Justice Anu Sivaraman ruled that Public Service Commission should immediately take steps to appoint six women who were in the rank list of the commission for appointment as peon and helper posts in Bevco, who were denied the postings citing existing rules.