SC tells HCs to set up panels in courts under Vishaka norms

The Supreme Court on Friday directed high courts across the country to set up within two months Internal Complaints Committees and to ensure formation of such panels in all district courts as per the Vishaka guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace,.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also asked the acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to constitute the requisite Committee in the high court and all district courts here, if this was not yet done as per the mandate of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the the Vishaka guidelines.

The Registrar General of high courts have been asked to file compliance reports on or before July 15, 2018.

The court's direction came following the manhandling of a woman lawyer by the agitating lawyers at Tis Hazari district court in Delhi.

It directed the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police to investigate into two cross FIRs filed over the incident and said that the trial in the case, if it eventually took place, would be held at Patiala House court.

The court direction came after senior counsel Indira Jaising urged it to allow the law to take its course in respect of the two FIRs.

The court said the alleged accused in the two FIRs would not be arrested.

Initially, an FIR was lodged on the direction of Judge Prashant Kumar after the woman lawyer Afshan Pracha narrated the incident of her manhandling and humiliation by the agitating lawyers. However, a counter FIR was later filed naming the woman lawyer as an accused.

The court said: "The petitioner who is the accused in the counter FIR and the accused named in the FIR lodged by the petitioner shall not be arrested."

"When we say that they shall not be arrested, it is requisite that neither of the parties shall create any kind of acrimonious atmosphere or tamper with the witnesses or any evidence which is likely to be brought on record.

"They shall also co-operate in the investigation," the court directed.

The matter is rooted in the alleged manhandling of lawyer Afshan Pracha when she decided to appear before the court of Judge Prashant Kumar in the Tis Hazari Court in defiance of a strike call by the Coordination Committee of All-District Court Bar Associations of Delhi on May 8.

Keeping the option open for an out-of-court settlement of the matter, the court said that that its observation would not debar the parties to enter into a settlement, if they so desired.

The court said that the parties in the matter or any member of the bar would not create any obstruction in the holding of a fair trial.

--IANS

pk-gt/nir/vm