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No panel to cover sexual harassment in SC, courts!
There is a committee to address complaints of sexual harassment faced by women in every workplace, thanks to the Vishaka judgment of the Supreme Court which made it a law 15 years ago. Ironically, the Supreme Court and courts below are yet to have one of their own.
With courts serving as a workplace for lakhs of women lawyers across the country, the lady members of the Supreme Court bar approached the apex court on Tuesday seeking direction for a Complaints Committee under Vishaka judgment to be set up in every court in the country.
Senior advocate Indu Malhotra advanced this request before a bench of Justices TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra which was hearing a case of assault on a lady lawyer by her male counterpart in the Delhi High Court in January this year. “This is a fit case for constituting a Complaints Committee under the 1997 Vishaka judgment,” Malhotra said. The bench decided to consider the matter on the next date of hearing.
While a formal application in this regard is expected to be filed on the next date, the women lawyers complained of assault and stalking by their male counterparts that often went unpunished due to inaction by the bar association leaders. In the absence of a complaints mechanism with courts, there is no place for women lawyers to seek remedy for the wrong done.
The case brought before the apex court presented a similar situation. The lady lawyer in question alleged of being slapped and assaulted while appearing in a case before the Joint Registrar of the Delhi High Court. She was asked to compromise by senior members of the Delhi HC Bar Association, but her refusal to do so only yielded to threat calls and emotive appeals by lawyers.
It was on the instance of her senior, who complained to the Chief Justice of the Delhi HC, that proceedings were initiated against the lawyer in question. He was sentenced to seven days of imprisonment and barred from practice for three months. He filed the present appeal before the Supreme Court to seek quashing of the case on the ground that the lady hit him first. The acceptance of the charge was a term of compromise which was now used against him, he added.
Even as the court decides the case on merits, the larger issue still would be whether Vishaka judgment could be applicable to courts, which strictly is a workplace only for the staff employed in the Supreme Court.
The lady lawyers, however, do not seem to budge as according to them the demand raised by them was long overdue.
There is a committee to address complaints of sexual harassment faced by women in every workplace, thanks to the Vishaka judgment of the Supreme Court which made it a law 15 years ago. Ironically, the Supreme Court and courts below are yet to have one of their own.
With courts serving as a workplace for lakhs of women lawyers across the country, the lady members of the Supreme Court bar approached the apex court on Tuesday seeking direction for a Complaints Committee under Vishaka judgment to be set up in every court in the country.
Senior advocate Indu Malhotra advanced this request before a bench of Justices TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra which was hearing a case of assault on a lady lawyer by her male counterpart in the Delhi High Court in January this year. “This is a fit case for constituting a Complaints Committee under the 1997 Vishaka judgment,” Malhotra said. The bench decided to consider the matter on the next date of hearing.
While a formal application in this regard is expected to be filed on the next date, the women lawyers complained of assault and stalking by their male counterparts that often went unpunished due to inaction by the bar association leaders. In the absence of a complaints mechanism with courts, there is no place for women lawyers to seek remedy for the wrong done.
The case brought before the apex court presented a similar situation. The lady lawyer in question alleged of being slapped and assaulted while appearing in a case before the Joint Registrar of the Delhi High Court. She was asked to compromise by senior members of the Delhi HC Bar Association, but her refusal to do so only yielded to threat calls and emotive appeals by lawyers.
It was on the instance of her senior, who complained to the Chief Justice of the Delhi HC, that proceedings were initiated against the lawyer in question. He was sentenced to seven days of imprisonment and barred from practice for three months. He filed the present appeal before the Supreme Court to seek quashing of the case on the ground that the lady hit him first. The acceptance of the charge was a term of compromise which was now used against him, he added.
Even as the court decides the case on merits, the larger issue still would be whether Vishaka judgment could be applicable to courts, which strictly is a workplace only for the staff employed in the Supreme Court.
The lady lawyers, however, do not seem to budge as according to them the demand raised by them was long overdue.
