Madras HC directs Tamil Nadu to frame PoSH rules, suggests creating women’s development department While the state government has promptly amended its conduct and disciplinary rules, it has not framed its State rules for the PoSH Act.

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Tamil Nadu
Madras HC directs Tamil Nadu to frame PoSH rules, suggests creating women’s development department
While the state government has promptly amended its conduct and disciplinary rules, it has not framed its State rules for the PoSH Act.
Madras High Court
Madras High Court (File Photo| EPS)
Jegadeeswari Pandian
Updated on:
23 Nov 2024, 12:16 am
3 min read
MADURAI: Observing that the state government has not yet notified the rules for the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH Act), the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the government to scrutinise and adopt the model draft rules submitted by the State Women Commission for the Act, after making suitable changes if needed.

Stating that the social welfare department is already overburdened, the court also called for creating an exclusive department for women’s development.

The 140-page order that Justice RN Manjula authored could very well be a major stepping stone in the effective implementation of the PoSH Act in Tamil Nadu. The order was passed on a batch of petitions filed by three women, who were victims of sexual harassment at workplace.

After hearing about the uphill battle the women were waging against their management as well as the patriarchal social system to safeguard themselves and punish the perpetrators, the judge observed, “From the victim of Vishaka to the recently reported violence on Apaya, women folk send strong reminders that legislative advancement in addressing workplace harassment did not do marvels.”

Referring to a research report submitted by the amicus curiae U Nirmala Rani before the court based on a field Inspection done by two NGOs concerning the existence of internal committee in 60 Institutions, the judge noted that 39 of the 60 institutions do not have the committee; five institutions did not come forward to furnish information as to whether or not they have such committee and only in 16 institutions, the committee are found to be in place.

“Though Vishaka guidelines mandated various measures to be taken by establishments to combat sexual harassment in workplaces, there is a lukewarm response and the insensitivity to the menace continues. It is upsetting that directions need to be given to the agencies even after several years to ensure that Internal Committees are in place,” she criticised.

Citing another research paper, published by the Department of Criminology of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University by interviewing 1,200 women employees working in public and private sector organisations including victims and non-victims between the age group of 21 to 53 years, the judge noted that 60.7 % of the women employees do not report the sexual harassment to the authority concerned.

“The research reports would convey the bitter truth that the Internal Committee mandated under the PoSH Act did not instil confidence in the minds of the affected women to come forward and give the complaint. Apart from the indifference and apathy in the minds of the members of the Committee, the influence exerted by the employers on the committee, reverse actions like retaliations are some of the secondary harassment caused to the victim women,” the judge observed.

While the state government has promptly amended its conduct and disciplinary rules, it has not framed its State rules for the PoSH Act, she pointed out and issued the above direction. Also noting that all women welfare projects are entrusted with the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment department, which is also inclusive of child welfare, the judge opined that the social welfare department is already overburdened and it would be difficult for it to monitor the implementation of the mandates of the Act. An exclusive department to care for women development can be better served in the area of women’s empowerment, she suggested.

She also deemed it fit to issue a series of other directions, such as creating an official government website containing reference numbers of complaints committees, a dashboard with information about number of committees, its members, number of complaints received, resolved, reports submitted and action taken on the reports, steps taken towards allocation and generation of funds for the implementation of the Act, among others.

The judge further called for multiple reports from the government regarding the allocation of gender budgets to the social welfare department every financial year, its utilisation, availability of gender cell mechanism and awareness about the same.

She also told the government to form a state-level technical committee with qualified persons to prepare module and evaluation questionnaires for gender sensitisation awareness and training programmes.

Besides this, she sought a feasibility report from the central and state authorities on 15 other suggestions namely, setting up of separate department for women empowerment, including gender sensitisation questions in competitive examinations and tests conducted for promotions and increment, conducting periodical assessment of gender sensitivity for persons in managerial positions in institutions, making ‘gender sensitivity clearance certificate’ a prerequisite for obtaining all types of licenses, forming gender sensitivity audit squad, appointing technical authorities (gender) at central, state, district, taluk and village level, among others.

Appreciating the efforts made by several advocates, especially the amicus curiae U Nirmala Rani, in assisting the court, the judge posted the matter after a month for getting compliance reports and feedback from the authorities.

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