EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE
28thSeptember 2021
Issue No. 18/21-22
The Bombay High Court has vide an Order dated 24th September, 2021 framed certain guidelines (“Guidelines”) with respect to conduct of proceedings under the of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) and the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013 (“POSH Rules”).
The said Guidelines aim to protect the identities of the parties from disclosure in proceedings that have been initiated and are pending before any Court, Industrial Tribunal or Labour Court.
As per the said Guidelines, all POSH proceedings shall be conducted in Chambers or in-camera and all orders and judgments shall not be delivered in open court. Furthermore, no personal identifiable information (“PII”) of the parties or witnesses shall be mentioned in any Order or judgment that have been passed in such proceedings, nor shall any PII be retained with documents that have been filed with the Registry.
The Guidelines further prescribes that specific order from the Court would be required before any order is released into the public domain on the condition that only an anonymised version of the order shall be into the public domain for publication. Also, parties to the proceedings, advocates as well as witnesses are not permitted to disclose the contents of any order, judgment or filing to the media (including social media), without specific permission from the Court. In addition to the oath, witnesses shall also be required to sign a statement of non- disclosure and confidentiality.
Any breach and non-adherence of the Guidelines would invite contempt of court proceedings.
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