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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Supreme Court implements anti-sexual harassment law to protect women lawyers -Dhananjay Mahapatra

Supreme Court implements anti-sexual harassment law to protect women lawyers -Dhananjay Mahapatra

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published Published on Jul 18, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 18, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Wednesday was a historic day for women in courts, with the Supreme Court finally framing regulations to protect women lawyers from sexual harassment at the hand of male counterparts within the court complex, including inside chambers within the apex court's precincts.

The regulations - spelling the triumph of a 16-year-long campaign by women advocates - have taken a broader definition of "sexual definition" to include sending of undesirable sexually coloured text or voice messages or sexually explicit material to women advocates and also stalking. Complaints against sexual harassment would be heard by a Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC), which will be headed by a sitting SC Judge.

A complaint has to be inquired into and the inquiry report acted upon by GSICC within 45 days of completion of inquiry. If found guilty, an advocate would be barred from entering the SC's premises for a period that can extend up to a year, besides facing - depending upon the nature of offence - criminal charges.

Asking for the immediate implementation of the guidelines, a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir, AR Dave and Ranjana Prakash also asked the high courts to frame similar guidelines to protect women lawyers from sexual harassment in the HCs and district courts.

The belated step addresses a huge irony. The SC, which through its path-breaking Vishakha judgment had made it mandatory for all institutions employing more than 10 women to have an oversight mechanism to deter sexual harassment at workplace, itself took 16 years to practice what it laid down for others.

Talks of sexual harassment of women lawyers by a group of seniors as well as stalking by few others had always been heard in the corridors of the court. But it took the outrageous provocation in the Delhi HC earlier this year in which an employee armed with a camera on his cellphone was caught peeping into women's toilet, to breach the tolerance of women lawyers.

Angered by the silence of seniors in the bar, women lawyers stepped up the pressure for the implementation of the Vishaka judgment, with advocates Binu Tamta and Vibha Datta Makhija filing a writ petition.

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir responded with alacrity, requesting renowned lawyer Fali Nariman to head a committee to draft the guidelines, and securing assistance of Attorney General G E Vahanvati. The Nariman Committee on Wednesday submitted its recommendations on Wednesday that were promptly accepted by a CJI-led bench.

In the 1997 Vishaka judgment, the SC had taken serious note of rampant sexual harassment of women employees at workplace and made it mandatory for every government and private organization to set up of women-dominated committees to deal with sexual harassment complaints.

However, women lawyers could not avail of the protection accorded under the judgment because of a mere technicality. Though the court was their workplace, they were not employees of the court, a distinction which put them outside the purview of the anti-sexual harassment panels set up for the court employees.

With their frustration welling up against the backdrop of growing instances of sexual harassment, women lawyers started pushing for a Vishaka judgment-directed committee in the apex court.

The seven-member committee set up by the apex court for drafting of the regulation had just two male members, Fali Nariman and Anand Grover. Other members were advocates Indu Malhotra, petitioners Makhija and Tamta, Meenakshi Arora and Asha Menon. During the hearings before the court, seniors Indira Jaising and Kamini Jaiswal too lent support to the cause.

They had demanded that the anti-harassment committee must consist of more than 50% women to ensure that the "big boys club" did not succeed in brushing under the carpet complaints and women themselves were empowered to deal with their grievances. This has been accepted by the SC.


The Times of India, 18 July, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Supreme-Court-implements-anti-sexual-harassment-law-to-protect-women-lawyers/articleshow/21131437.cms


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