CLAT PG Current Affairs — 19 September 2026

The Supreme Court has urged the Bar Council of India and the Central Government to frame specific regulations addressing sexual harassment complaints by women lawyers practising in all courts across India. The Court noted that the existing POSH Act framework, designed for employer-employee workplaces, does not adequately cover advocates who lack a formal employer-employee relationship with courts or Bar Associations, leaving women lawyers without a structured redressal mechanism for harassment at their workplace.

The Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, 2013, implements the directions issued by the Supreme Court in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997), which held that sexual harassment at the workplace violates Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution. Vishaka mandated employers to constitute Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) and laid down binding guidelines until legislation was enacted. Parliament subsequently passed the POSH Act, which applies to 'employees' in an 'establishment.' The structural gap this SC observation targets is precise: advocates are self-employed professionals. Courts are not their employers, and Bar Associations are not establishments in the traditional sense. This means no ICC is mandated for them under the Act's plain language, and the Local Complaints Committee (LCC) — meant for the unorganised sector — is a poor substitute for a profession-specific mechanism. The Court's urging of BCI and the Centre to step in is constitutionally significant. The BCI derives its regulatory authority from the Advocates Act, 1961, and can frame rules under Section 49 governing professional conduct. The Centre can legislate or issue subordinate regulations. This gap implicates Article 21 (right to a dignified professional life) and Article 19(1)(g) (right to practise any profession). A regulatory vacuum that exposes women lawyers to harassment without redress arguably infringes both rights, connecting this directly to fundamental rights jurisprudence the CLAT PG examiner consistently tests.