Supreme Court Seeks Affidavits From States/UTs On Compliance With Directions To Enforce POSH Act

The Supreme Court recently passed an order seeking follow-up affidavits from the Union, States and the Union Territories in regards to its comprehensive directions for effective compliance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) passed last year on December 3.The directions, passed by a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and NK Singh, included the constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee at workplaces in consonance with provisions of the POSH Act, appointment of District officers, constitution of Local Committee by the concerned District Officer, to name a few. Since then, a bench of Justices Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma has followed up on the matter and imposed costs on States and Union Territories for failing to file a compliance affidavit.As per the latest status report submitted by Amicus Padma Priya, Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Union Territory of Chandigarh, Union Territory of Ladakh, Union Territory of Lakshadeep Adminstration, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, NCT of Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal have more or less compiled with the majority of the directions.Whereas, as for the affidavits filed by the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Mizoram, Punjab, Nagaland, Puducherry, Uttarakhand, the extent of compliance is not clear.The same bench has now ordered the States and Union Territories to file follow-up affidavits. This is after amicus Priya submitted that mere issuance of directions by the State Governments/UTs to the local authorities for compliance with the orders of this Court without there being a follow-up action to ensure that there has in fact being an obedience to the order of this Court would be of no avail."In the circumstances, we direct the State Governments and Union Territories to file follow-up affidavits, so as to indicate that there has been compliance of the directions issued by this Court on 03.12.2024 inasmuch as pursuant to the communications made by the State Governments to the local authorities, there has been constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee at the work places and further the provisions of the Act have been complied with. The said affidavits shall be filed on or before 09.05.2025."In terms of the appointment of Nodal Officers, the Court found that certain States as well as Union Territories are yet to comply with it. Therefore, the Court has ordered for details of the Nodal Officers appointed by them."The State Governments and the Union Territories are directed to indicate in detail the appointment of the Nodal Officers as well as the uploading of the same on the respective websites and to indicate details of the same in the affidavit to be filed by the respective States as well as the Union Territories."In addition to this, as requested by the Union, there will be a virtual conference between representatives of the Department of Women and Child Development of respective State Governments and Union Territories with the representatives of the same Department of the Union Government, as well as included petitioner's counsels on May 3. This is to exchange information and best practices followed in the respective States.December 3, 2024, directions are:(1) The Chief Secretaries of every State shall take steps to identify and notify the Officer to be the District Officer of every District on or before 31.12.2024, if not already done.(2) The District Officer shall constitute the Local Committee wherever such committees have not yet been constituted or there has to be a reconstitution of such committees already constituted on or before 31.01.2025.(3) The Chief Secretaries of States/Territories shall ensure that the Internal Complaints Committee shall be constituted or re-constituted, as the case may be, having regard to the Section 4 of the 2013 Act in respect of their Government Departments, instrumentalities and agencies of the State Government and public sector units and other units coming under the supervision and control Governments/Union Territories by 31.01.2025.(4) Similarly, Union of India/Central Government, shall take steps to constitute or re-constitute, as the case may be, the Internal Complaints Committee in respect of a work place, wherever the same has not yet been accomplished on or before 31.01.2025 in respect of its Departments, instrumentalities and agencies.(5) The respective States/Union Territories to file the affidavits in compliance of these directions and copies of the said affidavits shall be e-mailed to learned ASG, learned Amicus Curiae, learned AOR for the petitioner(s) in W.P. No. 1224/2017. The said affidavits shall be filed in the first week of February, 2025 indicating the compliance of the aforesaid directions.(6) The...

Supreme Court Seeks Affidavits From States/UTs On Compliance With Directions To Enforce POSH Act

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

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