SC orders hiring of dist officers for effective implementation of POSH Act

Noting that “the language used in Section 5 is “may’’, the bench said the “District Officer, is the most important functionary in the system, tasked with keeping the redressal and monitoring framework both intact, and smoothly running” and therefore, “treating Section 5 as directory, would leave a gaping hole in the otherwise clearly delineated workflow and redressal mechanism, and the efficacy of this legislation, as a result, falls flat”.

It asked the appropriate government or district officers in question, to also “undertake effort to spread awareness on the existence of local committees, and make them approachable for the unorganised sector”.

The judgement came on a petition by an NGO, Initiatives for Inclusion Foundation, seeking directions for implementation of the Act. Among others, the petitioner also urged the court to direct the different governments to ensure that the annual compliance reports collected by the district officers are consolidated and the reports are published in the public domain. On this, the court said “while there is no need for such an express direction…the Central government, and state government… in the interest of transparency and good governance may consider to make these statistics public….”