Procedural Lapse By ICC Can't Extinguish Sexual Harassment Complaint: Gauhati High Court Orders Fresh Inquiry Under POSH

The Gauhati High Court has held that procedural lapses or inaction on the part of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) cannot defeat an aggrieved woman's substantive statutory right to seek redress under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act).

Dismissing a challenge to the revival of ICC proceedings, Justice Devashis Baruah made it clear that the protective scheme of the Act cannot be frustrated merely because the committee earlier failed to act.

The Court noted that although the complaint had been filed years earlier, the ICC had abdicated its statutory duty by declining to inquire into the allegations on the ground that related criminal proceedings were pending. Holding such an approach legally unsustainable, the Court said the committee had “failed to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon it by law” and had not conducted the mandatory fact-finding inquiry contemplated under Sections 11 and 13 of the Act.

Rejecting the contention that delay or limitation barred further action, the Court underscored that the fault lay with the institution and not the complainant. It observed that “on account of the fault of the ICC for not carrying out the responsibility reposed upon them by law, the grievance of X cannot remain unredressed,” adding that the earlier ICC reports “under no circumstances can be considered to be a recommendation… as there was no fact-finding/preliminary report submitted.”

Emphasising the beneficial nature of the statute, the Court described the POSH Act as “a social welfare legislation” enacted to secure women's rights to equality and dignity under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution. In strong terms, it clarified that “the technical argument” regarding delay cannot be allowed to “debar the aggrieved woman to seek redressal under the Act of 2013, if the ICC had failed to act as per law.”

Accordingly, the Court upheld the decision to restart the process and directed the ICC to “forthwith initiate the preliminary/fact-finding inquiry” as the first stage of the statutory mechanism, followed by further steps depending on the outcome. The ruling thus clarifies that procedural default or administrative inaction by the ICC cannot extinguish a complainant's substantive right to have her allegations examined, even after a considerable lapse of time.

Case: Aloke Kumar Ghoshal v. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati & Ors

Case No: WP(C)/5959/2022

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