New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea seeking the extension of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) (POSH) Act, 2013, to women lawyers enrolled with State Bar Councils and Bar Associations.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notices to the Centre and the Bar Council of India. During the hearing, the bench questioned how a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution could challenge a high court judgment.
On July 7, the Bombay High Court had ruled that the POSH Act applied only to employer-employee relationships, excluding women lawyers. The petitioner’s counsel subsequently agreed to drop the request to set aside the high court order.
The plea, filed by advocate and author Seema Joshi through advocates Ritika Vohra and Naman Joshi, seeks directions to implement the POSH Act for women advocates and to constitute or continue internal committees to hear complaints.
The petition argued that, without a clear precedent on the Act’s applicability to State Bar Councils or Bar Associations, women lawyers face inconsistent protection across states, contrary to the statute’s intent. It noted, “The Preamble to the POSH Act recognizes that sexual harassment violates a woman’s fundamental rights to equality (Articles 14 and 15), life and dignity (Article 21), and freedom to practice a profession (Article 19(1)(g)), which includes the right to a safe work environment. Excluding women advocates from its protection undermines the constitutional purpose of the Act.”
