Madras High Court asks Centre whether candidates for government job can be assessed for gender sensitivity

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu (TN) government to frame and notify Rules for effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) within four weeks..In an order passed on November 21, Justice RN Manjula of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court directed the State to consider the draft Rules prepared by the State Women’s Commission, make necessary changes, and approve and notify the same as the final Rules for both the organized and unorganized sectors across the State.The High Court also directed the Central government to submit a feasibility report on whether a set of questions to assess a candidate’s gender sensitivity can be included in examinations/ tests for government jobs.“The Government respondents are directed to file a feasibility report on the following: To include gender sensitization questions as part of competitive examination for employment under the State/ Union and other departments and Institutions. To have a pass in department and Institution specific gender sensitivity test along with pass in usual departmental account tests papers in order to get a pass for further promotion or get increment for any feeder cadre posts,” the High Court said..Justice Manjula further directed the State to create a website dedicated to numbering and notifying every Internal Complaints Committee (IC) constituted in accordance with the POSH Act at workplaces across the State.Such website, the High Court said, must also create a dashboard to provide information about the number of ICCs, their members, complaints of sexual harassment at workplace received by such committees, action taken etc.“And the State Government is further directed to create a government official website by giving a reference numbers to each of the Complaints Committee and to upload the details of the same in the website in order to ensure transparency of their functions. To create a dashboard to provide information about the number of committees, details of the members in the committee, number of complaints received, number of complaints resolved, number of reports submitted by the Internal Committee and the details of action taken by the establishment and the result of such action,” the High Court said..The High Court also directed the TN government to submit within four weeks, details of the funds allocated towards publicizing the POSH Act and ensuring its implementation in accordance with the provisions of Section 24 of the Act..The Court issued the directions while hearing a batch of petitions filed by two doctors at the Government Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital in Kanyakumari district.The petitioners had sought directions to the principal of the college to act on their several representations made following allegations of sexual misconduct made by students and interns against a staff member.As per the plea, the principal was shielding the perpetrator. During the course of the hearing, the petitioners had also been placed under suspension by the college authorities and such suspension was revoked after the Court raised concerns..The Court while hearing the matter realised that while the POSH Act came into effect in 2013, the TN government was yet to frame Rules for its effective implementation. It also noted that victims or those supporting them were often hesitant in filing complaints and faced repercussions in the form of further harassment, loss of pay or suspension from work.The High Court then extended the scope of the present petition and decided to issue directions to the State as well as the Central government for effective implementation of the PoSH Act..Advocates Niranjan S Kumar and K Vamanan appeared for the petitioners.Advocate U Nirmala Rani appeared as the amicus curiae.Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan and advocates A Shanmugavel, N Ramesh Arumugam, David Sundar Singh, JR Annie Abinaya, KGovindarajan, R Karthic Rajan, S Bharathy Kannan, and AK Manikkan appeared for the respondent State, Union and the College authorities..[Read Order].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.