‘Gender equality includes protection from sexual harassment and right to work with dignity, which is a universally recognised basic human right…’
- Supreme Court of India in Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan, (1997) 6 SCC 241
By its Office Order dated March 7, 2025, in exercise of powers conferred by Clause 4(2) of the Gender Sensitisation & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Regulations, 2013, the Chief Justice of India has re-constituted the Supreme Court Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC). The committee is chaired by Justice B.V. Nagarathna. Its Member Secretary is Sujata Singh, Registrar, [Officer in service of the Supreme Court of India], Its nine members include: Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh, Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Senior Advocate, Nina Gupta, Advocate, Soumyajit Pani, Advocate, Sakshi Banga, Prabha Swami, Advocate-on-record, Bansuri Swaraj, Senior Advocate, Liz Mathew, Senior Advocate and Dr. Leni Chaudhuri, Executive Director, University of Chicago Centre in India Pvt. Ltd., the nominee of the Chief Justice of India. Justice Nagarathna was first made the Chairperson, GSICC by order dated September 18, 2024 of Chief Justice of India. Prior to Justice Nagarathna, Justice Hima Kohli was the Chairperson of the GSICC.
It is apparent that the URL of contact details of the GSICC that so far that it has not been revised in the light of the Office Order dated March 7, 225. The Court's website provides details of 19 volunteers which seems to indicate that SCGSICC is operating in an ad hoc manner since 2014. The SCGSICC Regulations were notified in the Gazette of India on August 6, 2013. It provided its first 5-page long Annual Report on January 31, 2014. The SCGSICC was constituted by Office Order dated November 26, 2013. Its first chairperson was Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, Supreme Court of India. Rachna Gupta, Additional Registrar was its first Member Secretary. The first members of the SCGSICC included Justice Madan B, Lokur, Supreme Court of India, L. Nageswara Rao, Senior Member of Supreme Court, Bar Association, Indu Malhotra, Senior Member of Supreme Court Bar Association, Bina Madhavan, Supreme Court Bar Association, B. Sunita Rao, Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association, Madhu Chauhan, Supreme Court Clerks Association, Bharti Ali, Co-Director, HAQ: Centre for Child Rights (nominated by Chief Justice of India), and Prof. (Dr.) G. Mohan Gopal, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi, (nominated by Chief Justice of India.
The GSICC was reconstituted by order dated July 9, 2021 by the Chief Justice of India, the Committee was reconstituted with Justice Indira Banerjee as new chairperson. By order dated September 28, 2022, GSICC was reconstituted with Justice Hima Kohli of Supreme Court of India as its Chairperson. She retired from the Supreme Court of India on September 1, 2024.
The object of the SCGSICC is to fulfill a very important public function of sensitizing the public to gender issues and to address complaints made with regard to sexual harassment in the precincts of the Supreme Court. The first meeting of the SCGSICC was convened on December 9, 2013 in the Committee Hall, Judges Chamber Area, Supreme Court of India. In this meeting an Internal Sub-Committee of three members was constituted in terms of Clause 9 (1) of the 2013 Regulations. The three members were Indu Malhotra, Senior Advocate, L. Nageshwar Rao, Senior Advocate and Bharti Ali, Co-Director, HAQ. Two complaints were received by the GSICC from aggrieved women lawyers which were submitted to the Internal Sub-Committee. The Internal Sub-Committee initiated the process of examining the two complaints. As far as the Complainant in GSICC No. 1/2013 was concerned, her statement was video-recorded on December 12, 2013. The Complainant in GSICC No. 2/2013 appeared on December 16, 2013 and the video-recording of her statement was deferred at her request. Both the complaints were pending disposal with the internal sub-committee as per its first Annual Report. The second Annual Report revealed that in the first case Respondent No. 1 accepted to be admonished and the complaint against him was allowed to be simply dropped. In the second case, Respondent No. 2 was debarred entry into the Supreme Court precincts for a period of six months. It was also decided about Respondent No. 2 that the order passed by the then Chief Justice of India against the respondent be intimated to Bar Council of Karnataka as the respondent being the member of the said Bar Council, and the punishment so imposed was also ordered to be uploaded on the website of the Supreme Court of India.
Two more complaints were filed in the year 2014. The Internal Sub-Committe for inquiring into the two complaints was re-constituted by the GSICC. Complaint No. 3 was withdrawn by the complainant. With respect to Complaint No. 4, the GSICC had observed that the complaint was actually the copy of the writ petition already pending adjudication before Delhi High Court. It was decided that since competent authority is already seized of the matter, GSICC should not interfere with the said proceedings and the complaint was accordingly filed.
A representation was received from a complainant who had intervened in a writ petition filed by Ms. X in Delhi High Court. She raised her contention for developing a mechanism to deal with the complaints of sexual harassment against the judges. It was unanimously decided by GSICC that since the jurisdiction of GSICC is confined only to such acts of sexual harassment as have occurred within the precincts of Supreme Court of India the representation was not be considered as her grievance was against her Senior Officers in Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) where she herself was an Officer. The grievance was sub-judiced before the Competent Court and the contention about the mechanism as prayed for was also the part of the prayer in the writ petition. Hence, the representation of this aggrieved women was also filed by GSICC. The second Annual report dated January 31, 2015 revealed that no complaint of any aggrieved women is pending inquiry before the Internal Sub Committee of GSICC. The subsequent Annual Report revealed that in the year 2015, no complaint is received by any 'women' being aggrieved of being sexually harassed within the precincts of Supreme Court of India.
The Annual Report of 2016 revealed that three complaints were received by the GSICC from aggrieved women within the precincts of Supreme Court of India. One complaint filed by an employee of the Registry of the Supreme Court of India was held as not maintainable. Inquiry into the other complaints is under process.
The Annual report of 2017 reported that inquiry into the complaint filed in the year 2016 was under process and the same was concluded. One complaint was received by the GSICC from aggrieved woman within the precincts of Supreme Court of India which was disposed of.
The Annual Report of 2018 refers to five complaints received by the GSICC from aggrieved women. Out of the five complaints, three complaints were disposed of and two complaints were pending.
The Annual Report of 2019 reported about the two complaints pertaining to the year 2018 which were received by the GSICC from aggrieved women. They were disposed of in 2019. One complaint was received in 2019 which was found to be fake.
The Annual Report of 2020 reported four complaints received during the year 2020. The Complaint No. 1/2020 was received on February 13, 2020. It was filed on March 17, 2020 because the details of the complaint was not received by GSICC. The Complaint No. 2/2020 was received on March 26, 2020 and filed on August 31, 2020 as the respondent was an unidentified lawyer. The Complaint No. 3/2020 was received on May 21, 2020. It was reported to be in process and at the stage of completion. The Complaint No. 4/2020 was received on June 8, 2020. It was filed on July 16, 2020. It was found not maintainable.
The Annual Report of 2021 does not refer to any specific complaint received by GSICC.
The 33-page long Annual Report of 2022 recorded the deliberations of the GSICC on December 14, 2022 regarding amendments to the GSICC Regulations but t was kept in abeyance for the time being. The Chairperson directed that the Registrar(s) of some High Courts like Delhi, Bombay and Karnataka to send the GSICC Regulations applicable in the respective High Courts so that the same can be referred to by the sub-committee and incorporated to make the current Rules more workable. It was decided to sensitize male members of the Bar and court clerks about maintaining non intrusive distance from lady advocates in court. The issue of overcrowding in the Court Rooms need to be addressed in order to find out ways to make it more conducive and safer for lady members of the Bar. But the Annual Report fails to refer to complaints received by GSICC during 2022.
The 44-page long Annual Report of 2023 does not refer to any specific complaint received by GSICC.
The 40-page long Annual Report of 2024 does not refer to any specific complaint received by GSICC.
Between 2014-2021, all the Annual reports used to refer to specific complaints received by GSICC. It is inexplicable as to why this practice was discontinued after Justice Kohli. Justice Nagarathna has continued with the practice of omitting any reference to complaints received by GSICC initiated by her predecessor. When the Annual Reports used to be 5-10 pages long til 2021, they referred to specific complaints received by GSICC. In the interest of transparency, GSICC ought to revert to pre-2022 practice of referring to specific complaints.
Gender Sensitization and Sexual Harassment of Women at Supreme Court (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Guidelines, 2015 have been framed in exercise of powers conferred under Regulation 14(1) of the Gender Sensitization & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013 the GSICC hereby frames the following Guidelines for conducting an Inquiry by the Internal Sub-Committee set up under Regulation 9 of the 2013 Regulations.
A 93-page long Handbook on “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 with The Gender Sensitisation & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal), Regulations, 2013 was prepared in May 2016. It is a compilation of the relevant Act, Regulations and relevant provisions of the Constitution of India and Indian Penal Code. This Handbook has been issued by the Competent Authority of the Supreme Court of India on administrative side.
Under Regulation 8 of The Gender Sensitization & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal), Regulations, 2013, the format of the compliant has been provided.
Supreme Court's Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC) has provided its email: membersecy.gsicc@gmail.com. Drawing lessons from Hillary
Clinton's private email server controversy wherein 30 thousand emails and email attachments sent to and from her private email server while she was Secretary of State, Government of USA, it is high time private email server like gmail are avoided by GSICC and Courts.
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