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On Friday, the centre told the Supreme Court that the central government has requested leading business organisations Assocham, FICCI , Confederation of Indian society, Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Nasscom to ensure effective implementation of the sexual harassment of women at workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013.
Advocate Madhavi Dewan, appearing from the side of Ministry of Women and Child Development, informed the bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud that the said ministry has issued “advisories” to all the states and union territories. The advisory has advised the following states and union territories for effective implementation of the act which will lead to proper security and safety towards women in a workplace. The advisory has also advised to carry and conduct awareness programmes in the department and offices for sensitising the employees about the provisions of the act.
Petitioner, NGO- Initiatives for Inclusion foundation represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Parekh, assisted by advocate Esha Shekhar, contented that the affidavit filed by government has not mentioned anything about the implementation at various government bodies at different levels. He also contended that sexual harassment cases has also increased in the private establishments. The bench has ordered the counsel to file suggestions within two weeks and has posted the matter for March 12 for further hearing of PIL. The bench has also asked the sates to file their affidavits in two weeks.
According to the detailed affidavit filed by the government, the ministry has “published a handbook on the act with an objective to provide information about the provisions of the act in a better and easy for practical usage’. Private organizations are also been advised to adopt such customized module as per their services and rules with procedure. Furthermore, the ministry has collaborated with Institute of Secretariat training and Management to prepare a training module to build officials professionally to implement the same.
In the PIL, the local district officers and complaint committee were alleged for not being able to provide legal forums for complaints. Supreme Court in its Vishaka case laid down detailed guidelines for setting up “internal complaints committee” headed by a woman in every government and private organisation to deal with all kinds of complains related to sexual harassment.
The guidelines have ceased to exist, after the enactment of the act in 2013. The act which replaced the guidelines are more elaborate and covers the unorganised sector and domestic workers.
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