Supreme Court sets up the Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee; J. Ranjana Desai to head Committee

The Supreme Court has set up a 10-member Supreme Court Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee headed by Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. The Committee has been entrusted to look into sexual harassment complaints within its premises..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)..The Regulations were framed by a six member Committee which comprised of Senior Advocate Fali Nariman along with Advocates Indu Malhotra, Meenakshi Arora, Binu Tamta and Vibha Makhija, and Member Secretary of National Legal Services Authority Asha Menon..The notification has been published on the Supreme Court website today as first reported by PTI. The 10-member committee has a majority of female members (7 members) and two outside members nominated by the Chief Justice of India as per the Regulations..The 10-member Committee includes two Supreme Court Judges, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as Chairperson and Justice Madan Lokur as Member..Senior Advocates L. Nageswara Rao and Indu Malhotra are also members of the Committee representing the senior members of the Bar..Advocate Bina Madhavan is the Representative of Supreme Court Bar Association while Advocate Sunita Rao represents the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association. Madhu Chauhan is the Representative of Supreme Court Clerks Association. Additional Registrar Rachna Gupta is also a member..The two nominees of the Chief Justice of India who are on the Committee are Bharti Ali, Co-Director, Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi and Prof. (Dr.) Mohan Gopal Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies.