POSH Act: Bombay High Court issues guidelines to protect identities of parties

The Bombay High Court has issued guidelines to protect identities of the parties from disclosure in proceedings under the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) and Rules.

. Single-judge Justice Gautam Patel noted that there are no established guidelines governing the field, and therefore, proceeded to set out a working protocol to govern hearings and case file management to protect the identity of parties even from accidental disclosure in proceedings under the Act.

. Justice Patel issued detailed directions to be complied with for filing pleadings, publishing orders and accessing the same, including the hearings.

Some of the guidelines are as under:

. Protocols to be followed while filing pleadings

No personally identifiable information is to be retained by the registry when any document is filed;

For verification of identity, the registry is to ask for production of an identity document, but no copy of any such document is to be retained on file by the registry;

Titles are to be anonymised in all further affidavits or documents by the parties;

None other than Advocate-on-Record with a current vakalatnama would be permitted to inspect pleadings;

Entire record to be kept sealed, not to be digitised by third party unless ordered by Court (though supervised digitisation).

. Protocol to be followed during hearing of such cases

All hearings will only be in chambers or in-camera through physical hearing. No online or hybrid hearings will be allowed;

Only advocates, litigants will be permitted to attend hearings; support staff like clerks, peons, etc have to leave courtroom;

Except the court associate, stenographer or person providing secretarial assistance, other court staff must also leave the court.

. Restrictions to be followed for uploading or granting access to orders/ judgments

Order sheets not to have names of parties or witnesses, neither in titles nor in body of the order;

Orders/judgments on merits will not be uploaded;

All orders and judgments will be delivered in private, that is to say, not pronounced in open court but only in chambers or in-camera;

Certified copy section of the court will not raise objections seeking long titles in the applications for copy of the order, and as far as required, parties to function on authenticated copy;

If any order is to be released into the public domain, this will require a specific order of the Court and permission may be granted for a fully anonymised version.

. Media disclosure forbidden

Parties, advocates are "forbidden from disclosing the contents of any order, judgment or filing to the media or publishing any such material in any mode or fashion by any means, including social media, without specific leave of the court";

Witnesses to the action, in addition to the usual oath, must sign a statement of non-disclosure and confidentiality.

. Breach will lead to contempt

The prohibition on publishing the names, address or other personal information of the parties is absolute;

Any breach of the guidelines by any person, including media, will be considered a contempt of court.

. [Read order]

POSH Act: Bombay High Court issues guidelines to protect identities of parties

Neha Joshi

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