SC notice to Centre on plea to strengthen probe mechanism for PoSH complaints

The petition said safeguards for ICC members were missing in the private sector which has a detrimental effect on the decision-making process

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Centre on a petition seeking to strengthen the investigation mechanism to probe sexual harassment complaints faced by women in private workplaces by safeguarding the service conditions of members of internal complaints committee (ICC) to enable them to decide such cases independently and fairly.

The petition asked the Supreme Court to declare all members of ICC to be “public servants”. (ANI)

“This is a sensitive issue,” said a bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan as it issued notice to the ministry of women and child development on a petition filed by two women – Janaki Chaudhary and Olga Tellis. Chaudhary is a former corporate executive and Olga is a retired journalist.

The petition said that all organisations were required to set up ICC under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 or PoSH Act. But unlike public offices or departments where members have security of tenure and secure working conditions, the petition argued by advocate Abha Singh said, such safeguards were missing in the private sector which has a detrimental effect on the decision-making process.

The petition asked the court to declare all members of ICC to be “public servants” to get “immunity and protection” against arbitrary action by their employers for any decision not in favour of the company.

The petition filed through advocate Munawar Naseem said, “Members of the ICC are tasked with the statutory duty of adjudicating sexual harassment complaints while being on the payroll of the company. Particularly, in the private sector, they can be terminated with notice as per the employment contract (with up to 3 months’ pay)... This creates a serious conflict of interest and constraints for the ICC members from taking free, fair and impartial decisions.”

It said ICC members should first be granted security of tenure if women at private workplaces were to be protected by them.

The top court is already monitoring the implementation of the PoSH Act in separate proceedings and recently ordered a survey to be conducted across the country to identify organisations that were yet to set up ICCs.

Although the Centre has provided a portal called the Sexual Harassment Electronic Box or SHE Box, the court recently observed that private organisations and institutions had not been onboarded yet which prevented a woman complainant from registering her grievance against her employer.

Section 9 of the PoSH Act requires any woman to lodge a written complaint with an internal committee (if the employer has more than 10 employees) or a local committee (LC) where there are fewer than 10 employees.