Supreme Court directs the authorities to take affirmative actions to implement the POSH Act in letter and spirit

Last week, a case relating to sexual harassment of women at workplace was remanded to the Complaints Committee by the Supreme Court (“SC”) on the ground that “adequate opportunity” and “fair hearing” had not been afforded to the appellant before imposing a major penalty of dismissal from service on him.

While issuing the said order of remand, the SC has further taken note of the fact that there are serious lapses in the enforcement of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) even though a decade has passed after its enforcement. This glaring lacuna has been recently brought to the fore by a National daily newspaper that has conducted and published a survey of 30 national sports federations in the country and reported that 16 out of them have not constituted an Internal Complaints Committees (“ICCs”) till date. Where the ICCs have been found to be in place, they do not have the stipulated number of members or lack the mandatory external member.

Describing this as “indeed a sorry state of affairs which reflects poorly on all the State functionaries, public authorities, private undertakings, organizations and institutions”, the SC has issued the following directions among others, ‘to fulfil the promise that the POSH Act holds out to working women all over the country’:

• Immediate and effective steps shall be taken by the authorities/ managements/employers to familiarize members of the ICCs/LCs/ICs with their duties and the manner in which an inquiry ought to be conducted on receiving a complaint of sexual harassment at the workplace, from the point when the complaint is received, till the inquiry is finally concluded and the Report submitted.

• The authorities/management/employers shall regularly conduct orientation programmes, workshops, seminars and awareness programmes to upskill members of the ICCs/LCs/ICs and to educate women employees and women’s groups about the provisions of the Act, the Rules and relevant regulations.

• A similar exercise shall be undertaken by all the Statutory bodies of professionals at the Apex level and the State level (including those regulating doctors, lawyers, architects, chartered accountants, cost accountants, engineers, bankers and other professionals), by Universities, colleges, Training Centres and educational institutions and by government and private hospitals/nursing homes.

• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and the State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs) shall develop modules to conduct workshops and organize awareness programmes to sensitize authorities/managements/employers, employees and adolescent groups with the provisions of the POSH Act, which shall be included in their annual calendar.

Source: Supreme Court of India