On 9^th December 2024, the Supreme Court while addressing a PIL advocating for the application of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) to political parties, directed the petitioner, Adv. Yogamaya M.G., to first approach the Election Commission of India. 

The bench, comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Manmohan, observed that provisions for constituting an IC by political parties has not been made clear in the text of the Act and thus, referred to the decision of the Kerala High Court in Centre for Constitutional Rights Research and Advocacy v/s State of Kerala & Ors (March 17^th, 2022) where it was ruled that political parties cannot be mandated to comply with the POSH Act. The Kerala high court observed that political parties are not liable for the establishment of internal complaints committee on the following grounds: 

1. Absence of Employer-Employee Relationship: As political parties operate on informal structures they lack a clear employer-employee relationship, which might cause difficulty in the applicability of the POSH Act. 

2. Decentralized Party Structures: The diverse and decentralized nature of political parties makes it difficult to implement centralized IC and to ensure uniform compliance. 

Supreme Court’s Ruling to the 2024 PIL:  

• Justice Kant said that the Election Commission was responsible for regulating and registering political parties and, therefore, as far as political parties were concerned, EC will be the competent authority and the first point of contact for addressing the grievances such as sexual harassment at work.  

• The Election Commission of India was urged to encourage recognized political parties to create internal mechanisms for handling complaints of sexual harassment.