The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday expressed surprise over Madurai Kamaraj University not having formed a Complaints Committee under the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
During the hearing of a case filed by a woman alleged to have been harassed sexually by a university staff, Justice N. Kirubakaran wondered how come a university with around 700 staff members and 4,000 students could not have formed the statutory committee so far.
He directed the university counsel to obtain instructions on the issue by Wednesday, and pointed out that the Supreme Court had made constitution of such committees mandatory in public and private workplaces, in 1997, in the Vishaka case.
The judgement was reiterated by the Supreme Court on many occasions. In Medha Kotwal Lele’s case decided on October 19, 2012, a three-judge Bench of the apex court issued additional directions and directed private and public employers to follow the directions in letter and spirit.
Subsequently, Parliament enacted a legislation in April 2013 to prevent and prohibit sexual harassment of women at workplaces, besides providing for an effective mechanism to enquire into complaints lodged by the women and redress their grievances.
Section 4 of the Act stated that every employer should constitute an Internal Complaints Committee headed by a senior-level woman employee.
It should comprise a minimum of three members committed to the cause of women and one-half of the total members must be women.
However, after perusing a report filed by the university before the court in the present case, the judge said the varsity seemed to have formed a committee only for the purpose of enquiring the petitioner’s grievance and there was no whisper about the presence of a statutory committee.
