Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court on Friday (August 1) allowed the withdrawal of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by an advocate seeking to apply the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 ("POSH Act") to political parties.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran also allowed the petitioner, Advocate Yogamaya MG, to challenge a 2021 judgment of the Kerala High Court, which held that political parties are not bound to constitute Internal Complaints Committees (ICC) as per the POSH Act.

As soon as the matter was taken, CJI Gavai told Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta, the petitioner's lawyer, that it was a matter of legislative policy, in which the Court cannot interfere.

"This is the domain of the Parliament. How can we interfere? It is a matter within the domain of policy. Get some Parliamentarians and lady Parliamentarians on board...there must be at least 25-30 Parliamentarians who are women...ask them to present a private bill," CJI Gavai told the lawyer. Gupta said that the Parliament was not taking up this issue. She told the bench that the petitioner had earlier approached the Court with a similar petition, which was disposed of with a liberty to file a representation before the concerned authorities. Since no action ensued on the representation, the present petition has been filed.

The bench however expressed its disinclination and dictated an order saying that they are not inclined to entertain the writ petition as it was a matter within the domain of the legislature.

Gupta however replied that she was not seeking the enactment of any new provisions but was only seeking an interpretation of the existing provisions so as to bring political parties within the fold of the POSH Act. "My prayer is not to direct them to legislate. It is not the scope of the writ petition. The scope of the writ petition is the interpretation of the provision," she said.

She argued that political parties will constitute "workplace"/ "employer" within the meaning of the POSH Act, making them liable to comply with these provisions to address sexual harassment of women political workers. She also informed the bench about the Kerala High Court's judgment. The bench then opined that the High Court's judgment will have to be independently challenged.

The petitioner then expressed the intention to withdraw the petition to challenge the High Court's judgment. "The ld senior counsel for the petitioner seeks liberty to withdraw the petition with further liberty to take such steps as advised in law," the bench observed.

The petitioner had added BJP, Congress, AITC, CPI(M), CPI, NCP, AAP, NPP, BSP as the respondents. The Union of India and the Election Commission of India are the other respondents.

The petition has been filed through Advocate-on-Record Sreeram Parakkat.

Case Details: MS. YOGAMAYA M.G. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. |WP(C) No. 695 OF 2025