Supreme Court sets up its Vishaka panel
SC constitutes a 10-member committee headed by its woman judge to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within its precincts.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted a 10-member committee headed by its woman judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within its precincts.
Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam formed the Supreme Court Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC) in which there are six other female members.
There are two members who are outsiders and not connected with the apex court in any manner.
The panel is in consonance with the guidelines laid down by apex court in its judgement in Vishaka case for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.
Under the guidelines, it is required that the panel has a majority of female members and two members of civil society nominated by the Chief Justice of India.
The committee includes three male members — Justice Madan B Lokur, sitting apex court judge, senior advocate L. Nageswara Rao and Prof Dr G. Mohan Gopal, director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, who is the nominee of the CJI.
The women members are senior advocate Indu Malhotra, advocate Bina Madhavan (representative of Supreme Court Bar Association), B Sunita Rao (representative of Supreme Court advocates-on-record Association), Madhu Chauhan, (representative of Supreme Court Clerks Association) and Bharti Ali (Co-Director, HAQ : Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi) has been appointed as a nominee of the CJI.