Supreme Court Sexual Harassment Committee receives two complaints; Has budget of Rs 4 lakh for workshops, sensitisation programmes

After law interns, two lawyers have now alleged sexual harassment within the Supreme Court precincts. This has been revealed in the Annual Report of the Supreme Court Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee (the GSICC)..The Annual Report was published on the Supreme Court website yesterday..According to the report,.“Two complaints received by the GSICC from aggrieved women lawyers have been 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 is concerned, her statement was video-recorded on 12.12.2013. The Complainant in GSICC No. 2/2013 appeared on 16.12.2013 and the video-recording of her statement was deferred at her request. Both the complaints are pending disposal with the internal sub-committee.”.The new revelation comes close on the heels of sexual harassment allegations against two former Supreme Court judges..In October 2013, the Supreme Court had notified the Gender Sensitisation & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013 (Regulations) after an incident in the Delhi High Court had raised concerns about the safety and privacy of women within court premises..The GSICC, which is 10-member body headed by Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was constituted in November last year. The Committee has been entrusted to look into sexual harassment complaints within the Supreme Court premises..The GSICC in its first meeting had constituted an Internal Sub-Committee as per Regulation 7(2) (v) of the Regulations. The Internal Sub-Committee consists of 3 members, namely Senior Advocates Indu Malhotra and L Nageshwar Rao, and Bharti Ali, the Co-Director of HAQ. The GSICC has also appointed 10 volunteers..Speaking to Bar & Bench, one of the volunteers Advocate Gaurav Aggarwal said that,.“We have to organise training programme for lawyers for gender sensitisation, awareness generation and for dealing with complaints. An expert will be training us and thereafter we will sensitise others.”.The GSICC has a proposed a budget of Rs. 5 lakh for this year. The proposed expenses include conducting seminars to create awareness amongst the Bar as well as training the volunteers..Read the full report below..SC Annual Report of the GSICC