The Bombay High Court has shut the door on a 2017 public interest plea that tried to bring permanent Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) under the PoSH Act into the chambers of Bar Councils. The message from the bench was crystal clear: lawyers aren’t employees, and Bar Councils aren’t their bosses.
A Division Bench led by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne delivered the ruling while hearing a petition from the UNS Women Legal Association, which had asked for formal redressal mechanisms within the Bar Council of India and the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa to tackle sexual harassment by advocates.
But the Court wasn’t buying it. “The PoSH Act kicks in only where an employer-employee relationship exists,” the judges said. “Bar Councils don’t employ lawyers. That’s the end of it.”
However, the bench made sure to emphasize that all is not lost for those experiencing harassment in legal circles. Victims can still turn to the Advocates Act, 1961 — particularly Section 35 — which allows misconduct complaints against lawyers, including those involving sexual harassment, to be lodged with the State Bar Council.
The Court also pointed out that while advocates fall outside the PoSH net, Bar Council or Bar Association employees are a different matter altogether. If an organization has ten or more staff members, the statutory requirement to form an ICC under the PoSH Act remains binding.
Senior Advocate Milind Sathe, representing the state Bar Council, brought to the Court’s attention that Local Committees under the Act already exist at the district level — each one helmed by a District Magistrate or Collector — and are fully equipped to handle complaints when needed.
In the end, the Court found no legal foundation for imposing ICCs on Bar Councils for the benefit of independent professionals. The PIL was dismissed, and with it, the idea that PoSH obligations could be stretched into the autonomous world of practicing lawyers.
