Shriya Mishra, Jindal Global Law School
Introduction
In the year 1992, Bhanwari Devi, a Rajasthan state government employee as a part of a social development program tried to stop the marriage of a one-year-old girl. Due to her protest, she was brutally gang raped by five men in front of her husband. The rape survivor didn’t get justice and the rapists were let scot free. This enraged a women’s rights group called Vishaka who filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India. This case led to the promulgation of Vishaka Guidelines- a set of strategies and procedural guidelines to check against sexual harassment of working women. In Vishaka & ors. v/s state of Rajasthan (1997, SCC 246) the court stated that “these guidelines were to be implemented until proper legislations are made for this issue”. It lays down the definition of sexual harassment as direct or implied unwelcome sexually determined behavior which creates a hostile working environment in public or private sector. The guidelines were first applied in the case of Apparel Export Promotion Council v. AK. Chopra (1999, SCC 759) where an officer was dismissed for sexually harassing a woman at workplace, violating Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Later in the year 2013, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, superseded the Vishaka guidelines.
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