Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea challenging the order of the Kerala High Court, which held that it was not compulsory for political parties to set up an internal complaints committee to address sexual harassment complaints as per the POSH Act 2013. The Court verbally observed that those joining a political party are not under its employment.

The bench of CJI BR Gavai, Justices K Vinod Chandran and AS Chandurkar was hearing the challenge against the decision of the Kerala High Court, which held that political parties are not legally liable to establish Internal Complaints Commitee as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 since there is no employer-employee relationship among its members.

Sr Advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the High Court overlooked the broad definition of 'aggrieved woman' who can file a complaint against sexual harassment.

Notably, S. 2 (a)(i) defines 'aggrieved woman' as "in relation to a workplace, a woman, of any age, whether employed or not, who alleges to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment by the respondent"

Gupta contended that, as per the POSH Act, it was not necessary for a woman to be employed in the organisation for her to file a complaint.

The CJI, however, weighed in to ask, "How do you put the political parties in a workplace?", considering that political parties do not employ anyone.

Gupta stressed that the political parties still function in an organised set-up. She said, "They have an organisation".

Notably, S.4 of the POSH Act details the constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee. S.4 (1) states: Every employer of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute a Committee to be known as the “Internal Complaints Committee”:

Provided that where the offices or administrative units of the workplace are located at different places or divisional or sub-divisional level, the Internal Committee shall be constituted at all administrative units or offices.

Seemingly disinclined to entertain the petition any further, the CJI verbally said, "When a person enters a political party, it's not a job; there is no payment."

The bench dismissed the Special Leave Petition which was filed by Advocate Yogamaya. Earlier, the same petitioner had filed a PIL seeking to bring political parties under the POSH Act. The said PIL was withdrawn with liberty to challenge the Kerala High Court's judgment.

Background

In 2022, the High Court's division bench of Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chaly was dealing with a PIL moved by the Centre for Constitutional Rights Research and Advocacy (CCRRA) seeking directions to constitute the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) within political parties in accordance with the POSH Act 2013. The petition had arrayed the Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as the respondents in the case.

After analysing the relevant provisions of the Act, the Court was convinced that the basic requirement to become an employee one should be employed at a workplace.

"This would be more clear, if we analyse the definition of employer contained under section 2(g)(ii). Section 2(g)(i) in fact deals with the department, organisation, undertaking, establishment etc. of the appropriate Government or a local authority, head of that department, an organisation etc. So that clause 2(g) (i) would not come into play so far as the contentions advanced in the writ petitions are concerned against the respondents in the writ petition because there is no case for the petitioners that any of the organisations and the political parties would come under the term "appropriate Government" or "local body" to persuade such organisations to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee."

In the same judgment, the Court also held that film production houses have the responsibility to form an Internal Complaints Committee as per the POSH Act, observing that each film unit in an industry is an establishment and an ICC needs to be constituted for that purpose.

The petition was filed through AoR Sriram Parakkat.

Case Details : YOGAMAYA M.G. Versus STATE OF KERALA AND ORS Diary No. - 47381/2025