Newsflash: SC’s Directions on Nationwide POSH Survey

While monitoring the implementation of its directions, given in the case of Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa (Civil Appeal No. 2482 of 2014), the Apex Court ordered a nationwide survey to identify public and private entities that are yet to constitute an Internal Committee (“IC”) under provisions of Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”).

As per the order, Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories are to conduct this survey and submit their report by 31^st March 2024.

Genesis of Guidelines: Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa

Facts

In May 2023, the Supreme Court dealt with an appeal arising from a POSH complaint. The respondent in the complaint faced the allegation of sexually harassing female students at Goa University, where he served as an employee. During the investigation, he missed proceeding meetings on couple of occasions, citing medical grounds for his absence. The IC, therefore, proceeded to issue an ex-parte order against him. Holding the allegations to be grave, it recommended termination of his services.

Accordingly, Goa university terminated him. Aggrieved by the decision, he filed a writ petition before Bombay High Court. He sought quashing orders against IC’s recommendations on the following grounds:

Improper constitution of IC: IC consisted of members who were junior to him in his department.

Lack of reasonable opportunity to be heard: IC did not provide him with sufficient chances to put forward his defense.

Undue haste in proceedings: Inquiry concluded at a speedy pace without any reason, leading to respondent not getting sufficient opportunity to make his case.

The Hon’ble High Court did not find any merit in these claims and dismissed the petition. This led to Aureliano filing an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court’s Observations and Ruling

Supreme Court ruled in favor of Aureliano and held IC’s inquiry to be in violation of principles of natural justice. It noted that IC conducted the inquiry in haste and deprived the respondent of his right to be heard. Therefore, it quashed and set aside the IC inquiry. Further, it sent back the complaint to the IC for fresh inquiry.

During this judicial discourse, the Hon’ble Bench consisting of Justice A.S. Bopanna & Justice Hima Kohli noticed serious lapses in enforcement of POSH Act, despite a decade of its existence.

“However salutary this enactment may be, it will never succeed in providing dignity and respect that women deserve at the workplace unless and until there is strict adherence to the enforcement regime and a proactive approach by all the State and non-State actors”, opined the learned judges before giving numerous directions for better implementations of the Act; one of them being a time-bound exercise to verify whether State and non-State entities have LCs/ICs in place.

Latest Directions for POSH Survey

In the beginning of December 2024, the Supreme Court did a follow-up on the May 2023 judgement and issued the following orders:

Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories (“UTs”) must conduct a survey and determine the public and private entities without ICs.

All States and UTs must constitute ICs and LCs (Local Complaint Committee) as per the POSH Act provisions.

All Government departments and public sector undertakings must constitute ICs.

Appointment of district officers to coordinate the implementation efforts through nodal officers for each taluk within the district.

State and UTs must appoint district officers, as per Section 5 of POSH Act (wherever not appointed), by 31^st December 2024. These officers will be in-charge of setting up LCs and appointing nodal officers at taluk levels.