India: Indian Government Proposes Amendments to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

Authors: Avik Biswas, Ivana Chatterjee, Animay Singh

Recently, the upper house of the Indian Parliament has circulated the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Amendment Bill, 2024 (“Bill”) that proposes to amend certain provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“Act”).

The key highlights of the Bill are as follows:

• The time limit for women employees to file a complaint relating to an incident of sexual harassment is proposed to be extended from three months to one year, from the date of the incident/last incident.
• Under the Act, there is an upper limit of three months for the Internal Committee (“IC”) to condone delays in filing of sexual harassment complaints by women employees. The Bill proposes to remove this upper limit, allowing the Internal Committees to condone delays based on the facts and circumstances of each case.
• Under Section 10 of the Act, ICs could, at the request of women employees, take steps to resolve sexual harassment complaints through conciliation. While monetary settlements during conciliation were barred under the Act, the Bill proposes to delete the provision in its entirety.

Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-House Counsel

While the proposed changes are indeed aligned with the principles of the Act, they do not have the force of law yet. However, it is important for employers to closely monitor the developments in this regard. Once the amendments are brought into effect, it is most likely that employers would need to revise the provisions of their internal Anti-Sexual Harassment policies.