The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal directed the Central Board of Film Certification for the film Lipstick Under My Burkha an adult certification, PTI reported on Tuesday. Earlier in February, the CBFC had refused to certify the Prakash Jha film on the ground that the film is “lady-oriented”, among other reasons.

“The Examining and Revising Committee of the CBFC have misdirected themselves in denying certification on the ground that the story of the film is women-oriented,” the tribunal said according to PTI. A woman-oriented film or one containing sexual desires of women cannot be “embargoed”, the tribunal added.

The FCAT, headed by former Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin, said the film should be granted an “A” certificate with “voluntary and some additional cuts and deletions”. The tribunal also maintained that some cuss words and intimate scenes shown in the film were an important part of the storyline. However, the tribunal bench suggested some deletions in a few intimate scenes without affecting the “substance of the scene”, the news agency reported. It also asked muting of some Hindi words, including words referring to prostitutes, in one scene.

“The story is lady-oriented, their fantasy about life,” CBFC had said in February. “There are contentious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society.” Prakash Jha and the film’s director Alankrita Shrivastava had approached the FCAT after the CBFC’s examining committee refused to certify the film. They had also offered to make some cuts in the film.

Set in a small town of India, Lipstick Under My Burkha is about four women who are in search of freedom. It stars Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur in the leading roles. The film has already won the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival and the Spirit of Asia Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival.