NEW DELHI: SC on Friday agreed to hear Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association’s plea to make Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act applicable to sexual harassment complaints against advocates. It issued a notice of appeal against a Bombay high court judgment holding that the Act was not applicable to advocates.A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice on the petition and tagged it along with a similar petition filed earlier. The association said the HC judgment was against the principles laid down by the apex court, which had directed every professional body must have an internal complaints committee.Senior advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, appearing for the petitioner, said the HC judgment left women in the profession without remedies and no permanent grievance redress committee. She argued that the HC had adopted a narrow interpretation by holding that the POSH Act did not apply in the absence of an employer-employee relationship, and had ignored that the Act was a special law meant to ensure a safe and dignified workplace for women. The HC had ruled that the POSH Act did not apply to complaints by female advocate members of the Bar Council of India or the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, saying the Act applied only where there was an employer-employee relationship, and that Bar Councils could not be considered employers of advocates.
