Labour Law Assignment

Submitted by: Anand K Dubey: - 2K10A07 Ahmad Rummani: - 2K10A03 Anirban Saikia: - 2K10A11 Robin Choudhary: - 2K10A57

Sexual Harassment Bill 2003 A Bill to provide for prevention of sexual harassment of women and women employees that is work related or arises during the course of employment or custodial in nature by anyone including their employers, superiors, colleagues and matters connected therewith. Be it enacted by Parliament in the fifty fifth year of the Republic of India as follows:1. Short title extent and commencement i. This Act may be called the Sexual Harassment of Women at their Work Place (Prevention) Act, 2003. ii. It extends to the whole of India. iii. It shall come into force with immediate effect.

2. Definition: In this Act, unless the Context otherwise requires a. "Appropriate Government" means in relation to the Centrally owned

undertakings or departments, the Central Government and in relation to the other undertakings and departments, the State Government.
b. Employer means:-

i.

ii.

iii.

In relation to an establishment which is under control of the Appropriate Government a person or authority appointed by the Appropriate Government for the supervision and control of employees or where no person or authority is appointed the Head of the Department. In relation to an establishment under any local authority, the person appointed by such authority for the supervision and control of employees or where no person is so appointed the Chief Executive Officer; In any other case, the person who or the authority which, has the ultimate control over the affairs of establishment or house and wheresuch affairs are entrusted to any other person whether called a Manager, Managing Director, Managing Agent or by any other name, such person;

c. "Sexual Harassment" includes any avoidable sexual advances either verbal or

through gestures or through use of sexually suggestive or pornographic material, and includes amongst others; whistling, sexually slanting and obscene remarks or jokes; comments about physical appearance; demands for sexual favours; threats, innuendoes; avoidable physical contacts, touching, patting, pinching; physical assaults and molestation of and towards women workers by their male colleagues, or anyone who for the time being is in a position to sexually harass the women.
d. "Woman" means and includes a woman employed, whether directly or

through any agency, for wages or for similar other considerations in any

establishment, house or industry, or at construction site, or a self employed women, and also includes a student in an educational or other institution of learning.

e. "Work Place" means -

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. xiii. xiv. xv. xvi. xvii.

a factory; a mine; a plantation; an agricultural field; a place of sale of agricultural or other products; a brick kiln; a construction site; a shop or business establishment; any private office or house including a farm house; any Government, semi Government establishment or department including telegraph office, post office, telephone exchange etc; a hospital or nursing home; court premises, police stations; remand homes or other judicial establishments; restaurants, clubs, hotels; resorts or any other hospitality establishments; school, college, university or like institution; a training institution; an establishment wherein persons are employed for exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic, athletic and other sports related performance; any other place, where a woman visits in connection with work;

2. Conduct of sexual harassment to amount to misconduct in employment:

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the conduct of sexual harassment would amount to misconduct in employment.

3. Joint responsibility of employer in offence of sexual harassment :Notwithstanding

anything contained in other law for the time being in force if an act of sexual harassment is committed at a work place, the supervisor, manager and managing director or the overall administrative head, shall also be joint responsibility for the commission of sexual harassment in the establishment and irrespective of the intention and prior meeting of minds; section 34 of the IPC shall be made applicable in their case.

4. Women employees not to be harassed: No person being an employer or manager or

supervisor in charge of the officer/organisation or a factory or establishment or any

other work place or any other employee or any other person shall indulge or caused to be indulged in sexual harassment of women employees.

Before the actual enactment of the Bill, a national consultation was organized by the National Commission for Women on 03.04.03 to discuss the draft Bill on Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention) Bill. During the course of discussion the following points emerged.
1. The proposed Bill should have a preamble and it must visualize ad reflect the spirit of

the Vishakha Judgement, the provisions of the Constitution and CEDAW recommendations.
2. The ambit and jurisdiction of the draft bill was discussed in detail. It was felt that the

bill should be so drafted that it should not become counterproductive and affect women adversely. The jurisdiction should be clearly mentioned. A student, a client, a patient in a hospital should all be covered within the ambit of the Bill.
3. It was also felt that the Bill should not dilute the Supreme Courts order on the subject. 4. The Bill should address the preventive measures of sexual harassment at work place. 5. It was suggested that the definition of the Sexual Harassment as given in the Bill may

be substituted by the definition given by the Supree Court in Vishakha vs. State of Rajasthan.
6. While discussing the definition of workplace it was felt that there should be a broad

definition of workplace.
7. On the issue of joint responsibility of employer in offence of sexual harassment it was

suggested that the joint responsibility of the employer should be of civil nature and it should be collective responsibility of the employer. The employer should be held responsible in case no action has been taken on the complaint of sexual harassment. The Bill should have a provision to bind the employer to take the action against the accused.
8. On the point of prevention of sexual harassment of women employees it was

suggested to include the same in the preamble of the Bill.

9. On the subject of punishment, it was suggested that the same should be enhanced to

be exemplary. It was also suggested that provision of demotion may be incorporated as a civil remedy. It was also felt that the civil and criminal remedies should not be mixed up in the Bill.
10. It was further suggested that while drafting the Rules and Procedures under the Bill,

precaution must be taken to make it women friendly, and the procedures should be given in detail. It was also suggested that if the victim is unable to prove the offence of sexual harassment she should not be victimized at a later stage.

11. On the aspect of trial to be held in camera it was agreed that it should be left on the

choice of the victim.

12. It was further opined that the "Complaint Mechanism" should be reworded as

Complaint Redressal Mechanism". It was also felt that a time frame of three months may be introduced in the Bill for the complaint committee to submit its report and the complaint committee must record the dissenting views if any.
13. It was also felt that it was necessary to have a re-look into the provision of third party

harassment in the Bill. 14. It was also suggested that the provision of Special Officer to deal with the case in the Government Officers, be deleted as it was confusing. On the provisions and role of the District Level Officer, it was felt that after the enactment of the Act the same should be publicized for information of everyone. The provisions incorporating certain prevention aspects should also be included in the Bill. It was also felt that a provision must be in corporated in the Bill to deal with the non-compliance of the order of the District Level Office.