The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union government and the Bar Council of India (BCI) to respond to a petition challenging a Bombay High Court ruling that held the POSH Act does not apply to complaints filed by advocates against fellow advocates before bar councils.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice and tagged the matter with a similar pending petition.
The appeal has been filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, which has questioned the Bombay High Court’s July 7 judgment. The association said the ruling has effectively left women advocates without a remedy under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The petition pointed out that the high court’s view — that women lawyers can only seek recourse under Section 35 of the Advocates Act, 1961 — is legally inadequate. Section 35 deals with disciplinary action for “professional misconduct,” the association argued, whereas complaints of sexual harassment require the statutory framework and safeguards provided by the POSH Act.
The plea urged the Supreme Court to clarify that bar councils, as regulatory bodies and workplaces for practising lawyers, fall within the ambit of the POSH Act to ensure meaningful protection for women in the legal profession.
