Sexual Harassment survey: Law Firms & Courts

Sexual Harassment in India has been and is still a controversial and discreetly dealt subject. India has entered into the 21st Century, but still haven’t advanced and the country is termed as “unsafe” by its own people, leave alone foreigners..Sexual harassment is victimising a person (mostly women), by creating a hostile work environment by way of unwelcome sexual advances. In India, sexual harassment is also more commonly known as “eve teasing”. It is a crude way of asking for female attention. A casual search on Google shows that eve teasing is more an India phenomena and the top ten page gives results leading to examples of eve teasings..The term sexual harassment was first defined in the landmark judgment of Vishaka which for the first time laid laws in relation to sexual harassment in India..Vishaka & Others vs. State of Rajasthan.The Supreme Court in 1997, comprising of a three Judge Bench dealt with a path breaking judgment in the case of Vishaka & Others vs. State of Rajasthan & Others (AIR 1997 SUPREME COURT 3011). The then Chief Justice of India Justice J.S. Verma speaking for the Bench opined:.Definition: For this purpose, sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as:(a) physical contact and advances;(b) a demand of request for sexual favours;(c) sexually – coloured remarks;(d) showing pornography;(e) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non – verbal conduct of sexual nature. Where any of these acts is committed in circumstance where under the victim of such conduct has a reasonable apprehension that in relation to the victims employment or work whether she is drawing salary, or honorarium or voluntary, whether in Government, public or private enterprise such conduct can be humiliating and may constitute a health and safety problem. It is discriminatory for instance when the woman has reasonable grounds to believe that her objection would disadvantage her in connection with her employment or work including recruiting or promotion or when it creates a hostile work environment. Adverse consequences might be visited if the victim does not consent to the conduct in question or raises any objection thereto...The above were the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court for the prevention and redressal of sexual harassment of woman at workplace. After a period of 13 years, there is still no sight of a law being enacted specifically to deal with sexual harassment faced by woman workers. .Methodology.Courts: Bar & Bench spoke to 85 lawyers who practice across various Courts and their experiences at various courts. ..Law Firms: Our methodology was based on sending a questionnaire, comprising of 10 questions pertaining to sexual harassment at workplace in law firms in India. Voluntarily law firms answered our queries, which led to an analysis of the current law firm scenario..The following 10 law firms participated in the survey..1. Amarchand Mangaldas.2. Anand and Anand.3. Bharucha & Partners.4. FoxMandal Little.5. IndusLaw.6. Kanga & Co.7. Lexygen.8. Luthra & Luthra.9. Priti Suri & Associates.10. Trilegal.Law Firm Survey.Law firms by and large are aware of sexual harassment at workplace, but still vary in approaching it on the outset. We can see 50 percent said “Yes” to having evolved a sexual harassment policy, whereas 20 percent answered “No” we don’t have one. .1) “How does your law firm endeavour to ensure a safe, secure and congenial work environment where employees deliver their best without any inhibition, threat or fear?”.Most of the law firms ensured that there is strict adherence to providing a congenial work environment, and in case of Trilegal, Amarchand and PSA, if a women is found working late she is escorted safely to her home. This goes on to show that law firms are cautious and do tend to take measures in keeping the environment harass-free..Some of the responses were-.Anand Prasad, Trilegal Partner said, “Everyone is treated equally and is subject to equal work pressure. We also try and keep an informal, free and transparent work atmosphere – this helps people speak freely to each other, including to different partners. Women working late into the night get one of the staff to escort them home”..Rajiv Luthra, Luthra & Luthra Managing Partner said, “The Firm ensures a safe working environment by providing adequate safety measures such as an exhaustive member friendly sexual harassment policy which every member of the Firm is made aware of. Additionally, out of sheer commitment to the members and the Firm, the management along with focused HR personnel ensure a safe environment at work by being accessible to each member and creating a non judgmental communicative environment. All L&L members have a continuing assurance that in the event of any Complaint of physical, mental and emotional harm they have recourse to redress without any fear / threat of retaliation”..Binny Kalra, Anand and Anand Senior Partner said, “A work place harassment policy is in place in our firm and is implemented in letter and in spirit and it may pleasantly surprise you to know that the percentage of women professionals and staff in our firm is over 50 percent. Also, the sexual harassment policy is communicated to the employees and is on our notice board in a common area.”.Vijay Sambamurthi, Lexygen Founder Partner said, “As a young and dynamic firm, we take pride in our environment of informality, camaraderie, openness, and mutual respect. Members of the Firm recognize that Lexygen’s reputation and success depends largely upon the conduct of its professionals and accordingly, acts which violate the Firm’s core values or contravene the Firm’s policies or any conduct considered inappropriate or not acceptable to the Firm may subject the concerned person to strict disciplinary action”..Priti Suri, Priti Suri & Associates Founder Partner said, “At PSA we encourage everyone to behave as stakeholders and contribute to creating a healthy and a congenial working atmosphere. We spend most of our working hours at work so it is our co-workers who are our “family at work”, and it is crucial that everyone feels safe at the workplace. Nobody can work in isolation, we work as a human chain and encourage great interaction amongst the team members, both legal and admin. We endeavour to provide a strong sense of security and comfort similar to what one would feel at home. So, there is no question of sexual harassment. Being a woman myself, I completely understand the issues surrounding sexual harassment and the concerns of the family as well. This is why we have – over the years – tried to ensure that safety is paramount. In fact, when the women get late I personally ensure that someone escorts them back home and usually the escort is a man! That should speak volumes!.Reeva Gujral Singhal, FoxMandal Little Associate said, “Appropriate work conditions are provided for work, leisure, health, and hygiene to further ensure that there is no hostile environment towards any lawyer at the workplace and no lawyer should have reasonable grounds to believe that he / she is disadvantaged in connection with the retainership within the Firm. This applies to harassment of any kind. FM is committed to creating an atmosphere in which all lawyers can work together in an atmosphere free from any kind of harassment and looks into complaints of every nature”..2) “Has your firm evolved a sexual harassment policy? If yes, what are the measures undertaken by the firm to curb sexual harassment?.Three of the five firms who answered “yes” to having a policy discussed the measures taken by the firm. Luthra & Luthra has a detailed sexual harassment policy, which the firm follows and every employee is apprised of the Policy against sexual harassment which he/she is required to comply with the stage of induction into the firm. The responses of Trilegal demonstrates that the firm has a committee along with its HR division which looks into taking serious measures to curb sexual harassment and Lexygen, takes on stringent disciplinary action in case of an occurrence. Here are the responses –.Rajiv Luthra, Luthra & Luthra: “Yes. The Firm has a comprehensive sexual harassment policy which duly provides the measures to curb sexual harassment and enables members to work without fear of prejudice and gender bias. The measures taken by the Firm are in accordance with the Policy. The Policy clearly defines the behaviour which is not acceptable and with respect to which a Complaint may be instituted. The policy details the definition of sexual harassment, procedure that member should follow, penalties imposed for sexual harassment conduct, contact persons available for support and consultation, a commitment to keep complaints confidential etc. The aim of the policy is to ensure that sexual harassment does not occur and when it does occur, to ensure that adequate procedures are readily available to deal with the problem and prevent its recurrence”..Vijay Sambamurthi, Lexygen: “The Firm recognizes its responsibility for preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, for taking immediate corrective action to stop sexual harassment in the workplace and for promptly investigating any allegation of workâ€‘related sexual harassment. Accordingly, sexual harassment is specifically prohibited as unlawful and as a violation of the Firm’s policy. Behaviour that amounts to sexual harassment will result in prompt disciplinary action”..Anand Prasad, Trilegal: “Yes, we do have a formal zero tolerance sexual harassment policy. We have a sexual harassment committee comprising two lady partners, one male senior associate and one lady external HR consultant. Anyone facing a problem has the ability to reach out to any of the persons on the committee or any of the partners”..3) Role of a counselor? We asked law firms to disclose if they have counselors who help the employee (as a victim) deal with sexual harassment? .At Anand and Anand, the senior women professionals play a role as counselors as they are viewed as friendly and neutral by employees..At Amarchand Mangaldas the HR Department takes on the role of counseling whenever necesarry. The rest of the 8, out of 10 law firms at present have no counselors, but some do have committes / in-house counselors..Working environment at law firms firms – .M.P. Bharucha, Bharucha & Partners: “During all the years of practice, the only sexual harassment issues that we have had to deal with were on behalf of clients; never in-house. Our Firm’s ethos is centred around equality and respect which, I believe, is an effective prevention for harassment, sexual or otherwise”..Pallavi Shroff, Amarchand Mangaldas: “Providing a safe and secure environment is a very important task of the management. Several steps are taken to ensure the same. At Amarchand Mangaldas we firmly believe in treating all employees whether man or woman equally and at the same time ensuring their safety and security. We consciously encourage a balanced female to male ratio to maintain a safe environment regarding numbers. What is very important is to have a congenial work culture where the senior management shows utmost respect towards the women at the workplace. We understand that men and women both can be harassed but a woman is more vulnerable. We take preventive measures of ensuring safe and reliable transportation for all women who get late at work. However, should anyone ever feel threatened, I am always available to talk to them and take appropriate steps any time of the day or night. We also have a very competent HR Department and they interact regularly with everyone to understand their issues and counsel them whenever necessary. We are fortunate that we have not had any untoward incident so far and we hope to maintain the same standards in the near future too”..Preeti Mehta, Kanga & Co.: “At Kanga & Co., we have been sensitive to the issue. However, we have so far not felt need for any written down policy. Kanga is one of the oldest Indian Law Firms with over a century’s history with Indian cultural ethos and value systems. As part of our work culture as also expected behavioural pattern, we have been able to retain the value system of “Respect for Women” and “Equality of Treatment”. All possible efforts are made to make the work environment as friendly as possible and suitable and conducive for all. The Managing Committee consisting of three senior partners as part of its reference, supervises the working of all departments, human resource issues, overall discipline (including sexual harassment issues if they were to arise), and is authorised to reprimand any deviations from the acceptable behavioural pattern. Fortunately, till date no need has arisen to exercise this power. The young work force of the Firm, which is though more liberal, also upholds the Firm’s value systems and culture”..Prachi B. Mehra, IndusLaw: “At IndusLaw one of the remarkable things is that they entrust mostly females in the Senior and Principal associate level which creates a positive outlook for all advocates as well as good feedback mechanism for female juniors”..Binny Kalra, Anand and Anand: “It may pleasantly surprise you to know that the percentage of women professionals and staff in our firm is over 50%, in positions across various levels from the partnership downward”..Sexual harassment in Courts.Taking the aspect of lawyers visiting the various Courts everyday, 80 percent of the advocates, we spoke with, had experienced some form of sexual harassment..An anonymous lady lawyer said, “I have personally experienced sexual harassment twice and both the times it happened in the lower courts like the Tis Hazari. By the time I realised what had happened, it was just too late. I was harassed while entering one of the corridors towards the court rooms and as it’s always a mad rush and with rarely any security personnel around or female guards, it’s hard to keep an eye on who is next to you. The second time I just turned around and grabbed the guy and hit him with my files. He apologised sheepishly and then ran off”..Whereas our Courts are concerned none of the 10 lady lawyers experienced any form of harassment in the Supreme Court or the Delhi High Court. So the offenders feel bold in entering the District Courts, where there is less security and hardly any check on what’s happening around the premises..As Delhi, is known as the most vulnerable metros for women in India in 1992 had laid down a proposal for the enactment of the Delhi Prohibition of Eve Teasing Bill, 1992 which was received from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The proposal referred to the Commission in 1992 contained the Delhi Eve Teasing Bill of 1984 (which has been passed by the Delhi Metropolitan Council for adoption by Parliament), but lapsed due to dissolution of the Lok Sabha. It was formulated on the lines of Section 294 and 509 of the IPC as reported by the National Commission for Women..The surprising part was out of all the lady lawyers mostly didn’t want to file an FIR or get the offender reported to the cops. They thought best to handle the situation themselves on the spot for fear of the accused never facing any punishment from the law..Conclusion.Law firms in India are duly moving in the right direction and taking measures to curb sexual harassment. It is clear that awareness of the sexual harassment law is high whereas law firms are concerned. The employers are taking a proactive role in implementing the 1997 Vishaka judgment and in most law firms a complaint committee is set up comprising of Partners or the HR Department..(picture source: FIRE Filipinas For Rights and Empowerment)