Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association Approaches SC Against Bombay HC Ruling Excluding Bar Council From POSH Act

The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order holding that the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 does not apply to complaints of sexual harassment made by advocates against other advocates before Bar Councils. A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan issued notice on the plea and tagged the matter with Seema Joshi v. Bar Council of India and Ors.Senior Advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, for the petitioner, submitted that the High Court judgment went against the principles laid down in Aureliano Fernandes, where the Supreme Court had directed that every professional body must have an Internal Complaints Committee. She argued that the High Court had adopted a narrow interpretation by holding that the POSH Act does not apply in the absence of an employer-employee relationship, and had ignored that the Act is a special law meant to ensure a safe and dignified workplace for women. She further pointed to Section 16 of the Act, which mandates confidentiality, and contrasted it with the Advocates Act, which does not contain such protection. She said Section 35 of the Advocates Act provides for action on professional misconduct but does not cover interns, legal researchers or similar persons. “We as advocates are standing here fighting for dignity of others and we have been deprived of the redressal mechanism”, she submitted.After issuing notice, Justice Nagarathna highlighted the issue of frivolous complaints filed before the Supreme Court Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee. “You know, we have the GSICC, and we get all sort of complaints. That my matter is not being heard... We get all kinds of complaints other than sexual harassment, even then we have to go on filing it by an order. We don't know…”, she remarked.The High Court in the impugned order had held that the POSH Act does not apply to complaints by female advocate members of the Bar Council of India or the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. The High Court said the Act applies only where there is an employer-employee relationship, and that Bar Councils cannot be considered employers of advocates.It held that the Act will apply only to employees or committee members of the Bar Councils. The High Court stated that misconduct by male advocates against female advocates can be addressed under Section 35 of the Advocates Act, which provides for action for professional or other misconduct. With these findings, the High Court dismissed the PIL filed by the UNS Women Legal Association seeking the formation of permanent grievance redressal mechanisms for sexual harassment complaints against lawyers.The writ petition with which the SLP has been tagged seeks a declaration that the POSH Act protects women advocates registered with State Bar Councils and practising before courts. It seeks directions to Bar Councils and Bar Associations to constitute Internal Committees to hear complaints by women advocates. The petition argues that excluding women advocates defeats the purpose of the PoSH Act.The SCWLA petition was filed through AoR Sneha Kalita.Case no. – Diary no. 49533/2025Case title – Supreme Court Women Laywers Association v. Bar Council of India and Ors.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association Approaches SC Against Bombay HC Ruling Excluding Bar Council From POSH Act

Amisha Shrivastava

Tags