AP high court stays beauty contests

Justice B K Somashekara of the Andhra Pradesh high court on Friday stayed the conduct of any beauty contest in the state by any private or public agency pending disposal of a writ petition.

The plea has been filed by Prerana which had unsuccessfully applied to the Hyderabad city police commissioner to permit it to organise a beauty contest.

While Prerana was singled out and not granted permission for conducting the beauty contest, all other organisations were allowed, the petitioner's counsel pointed out.

An organisation had published advertisements saying that a beauty pageant was being held with the participation of 50 countries for selecting Miss Beautiful Smile, Miss Beautiful Skin, Miss Beautiful Figure and Miss Photogenic.

Seeing several advertisements put out by some organisations for holding beauty contests, the judge felt that during the pendency of the writ petition no such contest should be allowed.

UNI