Madras High Court: In a writ petition filed praying for a direction to the Kalakshetra Foundation to formulate a gender-neutral policy to prevent sexual and/or any other form of harassment of its students and to create a support mechanism, M. Dhandapani, J. directed the Kalakshetra Foundation:
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To place the profiles relating to the members of the Internal Complaints Committee(‘ICC’) constituted by it before this Court.
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To frame the policy and constitute the Complaints Committee with respect to the schools run by it, both CBSE and State Board, keeping in mind the provisions of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act and also other enactments, including the University Grants Commission Regulations, 2015, various guidelines of the Central and State Governments, the guidelines of the National Commission for Protection of Children and also the guidelines issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education, in a comprehensive manner and to include the Parents and Teachers in the Complaints Committee.
The petitioner prayed for the formation of a gender-neutral policy to prevent sexual and/or any other form of harassment of its students and to create a support mechanism in keeping with:
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Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act, 1998.
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University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015 and the various guidelines of the Central and State Governments.
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National Commission for Children.
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Central Civil Services Rules.
and to take action on the complaints of harassments received from the students either directly or through the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women.
This Court, vide order dated 17-04-2023 had passed a series of interim directions, and directed Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women, to produce the report of its investigation into the complaints submitted by the students of Kalakshetra Foundation, Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts.
Thus, the Court gave the aforesaid interim orders before passing final orders on the contentions advanced by the parties.
The matter will next be taken up on 15-06-2023.
[XYZ v. Kalakshetra Foundation, 2023 SCC OnLine Mad 2639, order dated 26-04-2023]
