Social Legislation: Acts for Women and Children, and Legal Ethics

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was passed by the Lok Sabha on 3 September 2012 and by the Rajya Sabha on 26 February 2013, received the President's assent on 23 April 2013 and came into force on 9 December 2013 — so it is the Act of 2013. It gives statutory shape to the Vishaka Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997), which had governed the field for sixteen years. The Act requires every workplace with ten or more employees to set up an Internal Complaints Committee headed by a senior woman employee, provides for a Local Complaints Committee at the district level for smaller establishments and the unorganised sector, and prescribes a three-month limit for filing a complaint. 2009, 2011 and 2015 correspond to no stage of this legislation. Hence option 2.