NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Supreme Court has re-constituted gender sensitisation and internal complaints committee with Justice Hima Kohli to lead as the Chairperson of the Committee. The committee comprises of a total of 12 members from various fields: including that of legal, Professors of Law Universities and others.
Senior Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna would also be a member of the committee, along with several others. The committee also consists of several senior lawyers, as per a notification issued by the Supreme Court's Administrative General Branch yesterday.
"In exercise of powers conferred by Clause 4(2) of the Gender Sensitisation and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013 and all enabling provisions in this behalf, the Chief Justice of India has been pleased to re-constitute the Supreme Court Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee," the SC's Administrative General Branch, said, in its order.
Apart from Justice Kohli being the Chairperson and Additional Registrar Sukhda Pritam the Member Secretary, other members of the 12-member committee include Justice Nagarathna, senior advocates Meenakshi Arora, Mahalakshmi Pavani, Menaka Guruswamy, Jaideep Gupta, Soumyajit Pani, Advocate-on-Record (AOR) Anindita Pujari, Madhu Chauhan of the Supreme Court Bar Clerk's Association, Professor Shruti Pandey of O.P. Jindal Global University and Dr. Leni Chaudhuri, the Executive Director, University of Chicago Centre in India Pvt. Ltd.
It is to be noted that the SC reconstituted the internal complaints committee after keeping in view the Regulation 4 of the Gender Sensitization & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court, Regulations, 2013.
The act of Regulation 4 provides for constitution of the Gender Sensitization & Internal Complaints Committee for sensitizing the public to gender issues and to address any complaints made in connection with sexual harassment at the Supreme Court precincts.