Women Empowerment

Effective Date of Constitution of 
Complaints Committee in  
Establishments to address 
complaints of Sexual 
Harassment of Women at 
Workplace

Empowering Women by Knowledge Sharing

In this series we attempt to sensitize working women and organizations with various provisions of POSH laws.                    

Effective Date of Constitution of Internal Complaints Committee in the Workplace by the Employer under POSH Laws,

The Supreme Court passed the judgement on 13.08.1997 in Vishakha vs- State of Rajasthan & Others made it mandatory for employers at all workplaces to constitute a Complaints Committee to address complaints of Sexual Harassment of Women.

Any workplace not having constituted a Complaints Committee immediately after the date of above verdict i.e. 13.08.1997, shall be guilty of violation of POSH Law.

Section 4 (1&2) of “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013 promulgated with effect from 09^th December 2013, mandates that every employer of a workplace, shall constitute the Internal Complaints Committee to address the complaints of Sexual harassment of women at workplace.

Under Section 26 (1)(a) the above act provides that failure to constitute a 
Complaints Committee shall make the employer punishable with fine extending up 
to Fifty Thousand Rupees.

In spite of the above punishment clause coming into force with effect from 09^th December 
2013, several organisations even till date, lackadaisically not constituted Complaints 
Committee making them defaulters in Law and liable for prosecution and punishment. 

However, the above provision in the Act only reemphasised more elaborately the 
Employer’s duty to constitute a Complaints Committee to address complaints of 
sexual harassment of women at workplace which was mandated by the Supreme 
Court of India in the judgement delivered on 13^th August 1997 in the  case of  
Vishakha – Vs- State of Rajasthan & Others (1997).

The verdict of the Supreme Court in the above case, having the power of the Law under 
Article 141 of the Indian Constitution laid down the following regarding 
constitution of Complaints Committee amongst others,

 Duty of the Employer in work places:

Complaint Mechanism:
Whether or not such conduct constitutes an offence under law or a breach of the service rules, 
an appropriate complaint mechanism should be created in the employer's organization for redress 
of the complaint made by the victim. Such complaint mechanism should ensure time 
bound treatment of complaints.

Complaints Committee:
The complaint mechanism, referred  above, should be adequate to provide, where necessary, a Complaints Committee, a special counsellor or other support service, including the maintenance of confidentiality.

In effect, the consequence of the above verdict would be that any workplace not having constituted the Complaints Committee immediately after the date of Judgement, i.e. 13^th August 1997, would have violated the Law and be liable for prosecution and punishment.

The above position has been clarified and upheld by The High Court of Mumbai in a judgement dated 13^th October 2017 in Writ Petition no. 1348/ 2001, Renuka Mukherjee vs- Vodafone Essar & Others.

In this matter, the petitioner Renuka Mukherjee filed a complaint with the Respondent Company, Vodafone Essar on 04^th August 2000 alleging sexual harassment  by her Senior.

The company on 04^th August 2000 did not have a Complaints Committee in place, they however later on, hurriedly constituted a shoddy three member committee even this committee did not address the complaint competently and as per the Supreme Court’s instructions given in the judgement of  Vishakha’s case.

The petitioner filed a writ before The Mumbai High Court, besides other observations, it took the cue from the Vishakha’s case verdict and punished the Company by imposing a fine of Rs. 50,000/- for the reason that the company  did not constitute the Complaints Committee as and when required under the Law laid down by the Supreme Court in Vishakha’s Case, constituting a committee later on did not absolve the respondent company of their responsibility and therefore rendering it guilty of violation of the law.