TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (3) TMI 1480
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..... All these writ petitions have arisen from a complaint made to the Local Committee constituted under Section 6 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013) (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 2013'). Learned counsel for the parties are ad idem that these three writ petitions can be conveniently disposed of by a common judgment. Detailed facts are not required to be given, however, to understand the dispute, some skeleton facts are being narrated. Respondent no. 4 filed a complaint with the Local Committee on 18.09.2019 alleging sexual harassment at the hands of certain officers of the petitioner company in one of the writ petition. As per the complaint, the last incident of sexu....
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.... Officer shall be nominated from other offices or administrative units of the workplace referred to in sub-section (1): Provided further that in case the other offices or administrative units of the workplace do not have a senior level woman employee, the Presiding Officer shall be nominated from any other workplace of the same employer or other department or organisation; (b) not less than two Members from amongst employees preferably committed to the cause of women or who have had experience in social work or have legal knowledge; (c) one member from amongst non-governmental organisations or associations committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment: ....
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....xual harassment from establishments where the 5[Internal Committee] has not been constituted due to having less than ten workers or if the complaint is against the employer himself. (2) The District Officer shall designate one nodal officer in every block, taluka and tehsil in rural or tribal area and ward or municipality in the urban area, to receive complaints and forward the same to the concerned 6[Local Committee] within a period of seven days. (3) The jurisdiction of the 7[Local Committee] shall extend to the areas of the district where it is constituted. 9. Complaint of sexual harassment.-(1) Any aggrieved woman may make, in writing, a complaint of sexual harassment at workplace to the Internal Committee if ....
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....ed to be members of such a committee. Section 6 mandates every District Officer to constitute in the District concerned a committee to be known as Local Committee to receive the complaints of sexual harassment. From the reading of Section 6, it becomes apparent that the Local Committee is an alternative forum for lodging such complaints where either the Internal Complaints Committee has not been constituted owning to the fact that the establishment has less than 10 workers or if the complaint is against the employer himself. The word 'employer' has been defined in Section 2(g) of the Act of 2013. Going further, Section 9 makes a provision for lodging a complaint by the aggrieved woman to the Internal Complaints Committee, if so constitut....
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.... counsels has contended that the complaint was entertained by the Committee even after the maximum extended period had elapsed. He, hence, contended that the Local Committee had thus, no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint being barred by limitation. He further contended that the complaint as per Section 9 should have been lodged with the Internal Complaints Committee which is in place and therefore, the Local Committee erred in entertaining the complaint. Learned counsel appearing in the connected petitions have also reiterated the same arguments. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the complainant has submitted that the respondent was thrown out of job on 16.01.2019 and still her accounts were not settled for a conside....
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....mittee. No doubt, she has pleaded in the written statement that she was in touch with the Management and some sort of inquiry was being held, however, that would not result in extending the period of limitation, particularly, when the language used in Section 9 is clear. The period of three months have been prescribed from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of the last incident. The last incident is alleged to have taken place on 03.11.2019. This Bench has also examined the communication dated 12.06.2019 which is with respect to the full and final settlement. From the reading of the aforesaid communication, it is not possible to conclude that it can be treated as an act o....