‘Have you set up panels to deal with sexual harassment complaints?’ Madras HC asks 32 collectors
The Local Complaints Committees are district-level bodies to deal with complaints of sexual harassment in private establishments with 10 workers or less.
The Madras High Court on Monday gave the collectors of Tamil Nadu’s 32 districts four weeks to file reports on whether they have formed panels at the local level to address complaints of sexual harassment from employees of small, private firms, Bar & Bench reported.
Called Local Complaints Committees, the district-level statutory bodies are meant to deal with complaints of sexual harassment in private establishments that employ 10 people or less.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar heard a public interest litigation related to the matter. The petitioner, R Karuppusamy, said he used the Right to Information act to find out that mills and factories in the state, which employ many women, had not yet formed Internal Complaints Committees, while in many districts, the Collectors had not formed Local Complaints Committees, The Hindu reported. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013 made it mandatory to form these panels, he said.
Responding to the petition, the Government Pleader TN Rajagopalan told the court the case was based on information obtained in 2015. But the petitioner’s counsel, P Selvi, said her client found it difficult to find the information and asked the court to order the government to present the latest facts. The matter will be heard on December 11.
