The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Bill, 2013 Passed by
Parliament
Reference -http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=92690

• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Bill, 2012 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 26th February 2013. Lok
Sabha has passed it in September 2012.
• Sexual Harassment at workplace is a violation of women’s right to gender
equality, life and liberty. It creates an insecure and hostile work environment,
which discourages women’s participation in work, thereby adversely affecting
their economic empowerment and the goal of inclusive growth. However,
there is no domestic law to address this issue except a few provisions of the
Indian Penal Code and the Supreme Court Guidelines in the case of Vishaka vs.
State of Rajasthan.
• The increasing work participation rate of women has made it imperative that a
comprehensive legislation focusing on prevention of sexual harassment as well
as providing a redressal mechanism be enacted.Reference -http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=92690

The salient features of the Act are as follows: -
• It defines “sexual harassment at the workplace” in a comprehensive manner, in keeping
with the definition laid down in the Vishakajudgment, and broadening it further to cover
circumstances of implied or explicit promise or threat to a woman’s employment prospects
or creation of hostile work environment or humiliating treatment, which can affect her
health or safety.
Who (Employers/Employees) comes under this Act –
1. The definition of “aggrieved woman”, who will get protection under the Act is extremely
wide to cover all women, irrespective of her age or employment status, whether in the
organised or unorganised sectors, public or private and covers clients, customers and
domestic workers as well.
2. While the “workplace” in the Vishaka guidelines is confined to the traditional office set-up
where there is a clear employer-employee relationship, the Act goes much further to include
organisations, department, office, branch unit etc in the public and private sector, organized
and unorganized, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, sports institutes,
stadiums, sports complex and any place visited by the employee during the course of
employment including the transportation.Reference -http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=92690

3. Definition of employee covers regular/temporary/ad hoc/daily wage employees, whether
for remuneration or not and can also include volunteers. The definition of employer includes
the head of the Government department/organisation/institution/office/branch/unit, the
person responsible for management/supervisions/control of the workplace, the person
discharging contractual obligations with respect to his/her employees and in relation to a
domestic worker the person who benefits from that employment.
The redressal mechanism (Complaints Committee) -
1. The redressal mechanism provided in the Act is in the form of Internal Complaints
Committee (ICC) and Local Complaints Committee (LCC). All workplaces employing 10 or more
than 10 workers are mandated under the Act to constitute an ICC. The ICC will be a 4 member
committee under the Chairpersonship of a senior woman employee and will include 2
members from amongst the employees preferably committed to the cause of women or has
experience in social work/legal knowledge and includes a third party member (NGO etc) as
well.

2. Complaints from workplaces employing less than 10 workers or when the complaint is
against the employer will be looked into by the LCC. A District Officer notified under the Act
will constitute the LCC at the district level. LCC will also look into complaints from domestic
workers.
3. LCC will be a five member committee comprising of a chairperson to be nominated from
amongst eminent women in the field of social work or committed to the cause of women, one
member from amongst women working in block/taluka/tehsil/municipality in the district, two
members of whom at least one shall be a woman to be nominated from NGOs committed to
the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues related to sexual harassment provided
that at least one of the nominees should preferably have a background in law or legal
knowledge. The concerned officer dealing with the social welfare or women and child
development shall be an ex officio member.

How to fill complaint and inquiry process-
1. A complaint of sexual harassment can be filed within a time limit of 3 months. This may be
extended to another 3 months if the woman can prove that grave circumstances
prevented her from doing the same.
2. The Act has a provision for conciliation. The ICC/LCC can take steps to settle the matter
between the aggrieved woman and the respondent, however this option will be used only at
the request of the woman. The Act also provides that monetary settlement shall not be made
a basis of conciliation. Further, if any of the conditions of the settlement is not complied with
by the respondent, the complainant can go back to the Committee who will proceed to make
an inquiry.
3. The Committee is required to complete the inquiry within a time period of 90 days. On
completion of the inquiry, the report will be sent to the employer or the District Officer, as the
case may be, they are mandated to take action on the report within 60 days.

Action-
1. In case the complaint has been found proved, then the Committee can recommend action
in accordance with the provision of service rules applicable to the respondent or as per the
rules which will be prescribed, where such service rules do not exist. The committee can
also recommend deduction of an appropriate sum from the salary of the respondent or ask
respondent to pay the sum. In case the respondent fails to pay such sum, district officer
may be asked to recover such sum as an arrear of land revenue.
2. In case the allegation against the respondent has not been proved then the Committee can
write to the employer/district officer that no action needs to be taken in the matter.
3. In case of malicious or false complaint then the Act provides for a penalty according to the
Service Rules. However, this clause has a safeguard in the form of an enquiry prior to
establishing the malicious intent. Also, mere inability to prove the case will not attract penalty
under this provision.

• The Act has provisions for providing reliefs to the aggrieved woman in the interim period
including leave and transfer during the pendency of the inquiry.
• The Act prohibits disclosure of the identity and addresses of the aggrieved woman,
respondent and witnesses. However, information regarding the justice secured to any victim
of sexual harassment under this Act without disclosing the identity can be disseminated.
Employer Responsibility and penalty -
• The Act casts a responsibility on every employer to create an environment which is free from
sexual harassment. Employers are required to organize workshops and awareness
programmes at regular intervals for sensitizing the employees about the provision of this
legislation and display notices regarding the constitution of Internal Committee, penal
consequences of sexual harassment etc.
• An employer will be liable to a fine of Rs 50,000 in case of violation of his duties under the
Act and in case of subsequent violations the amount of fine will be double together with
penalty in the form of cancelation of his licence, withdrawal or non-withdrawal of the
registration required for carrying out his activity.

• In case of domestic worker the procedure is different considering the nature of employment. A
domestic worker can approach the LCC in case of any complaint. If the complainant wishes then
conciliation may be carried out. However, in other cases if the complaint is proved prima facie then
the LCC can forward the complaint to the police for registering the case and taking appropriate
action under the relevant provision of IPC.
Monitoring -
• Regarding monitoring, the Act provides that the State Governments will monitor
implementation and maintain data for all State Government establishments as well as
private establishments in their territory. For establishments of the Central Government this
duty is cast on the Government of India. All ICCs have to submit Annual reports to the
employer who inturn will submit it to the district officer. All LCCs shall submit their annual
report to the district officer. The district officers will submit the report annually to the State
Governments.
• The Central and State Governments are mandated to develop relevant IEC and
training materials and organise awareness programmes to advance the
understanding of the public on the provisions of this Bill.

• The Central Government will provide financial assistance to the States to meet the expenditure of fee and
allowances payable to the members of the Local Complaints Committee.
Thanks for Watching !
India-HR
Please read http://wcd.nic.in/wcdact/womenactsex.pdf for complete act.
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Date-17th Nov 2014

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

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