In a significant development for women in the legal profession, the SC has agreed to examine a plea to implement the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, more commonly known as the POSH Act, for women lawyers. The court has issued a formal notice to both the Centre and the Bar Council of India (BCI), the apex body that regulates the legal profession in the country.
The plea was filed by advocate and author Seema Joshi, who is arguing for women lawyers enrolled with State Bar Councils and Bar Associations to be covered by the Act’s protections. She is also asking for the establishment of internal committees specifically to handle complaints from women advocates.
This move comes after a Bombay High Court judgment on July 7 ruled that the POSH Act only applies within an employer-employee relationship, effectively leaving women lawyers outside its ambit. During the Supreme Court hearing, a bench of Justices B. V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan questioned the petition’s original intent to challenge the High Court order, prompting the petitioner’s counsel to drop that specific request. However, the core issue remains very much alive.
Joshi’s plea argues that without a clear precedent, women lawyers across India face “uneven protection,” which goes against the very purpose of the POSH Act. The petition highlights that the Act was designed to uphold a woman’s fundamental right to equality and dignity under the Constitution, including the right to a safe professional environment. It states that excluding women advocates from this protection is “contrary to the constitutional purpose that the Act seeks to fulfil.”
With the Supreme Court now involved, the decision on whether the POSH Act should apply to the legal profession could set a powerful new standard for the safety of women working as lawyers across the country.