The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union government and the Bar Council of India (BCI) to respond to a petition challenging a Bombay High Court ruling that held the POSH Act does not apply to complaints filed by advocates against fellow advocates before bar councils.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice and tagged the matter with a similar pending petition.

The appeal has been filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, which has questioned the Bombay High Court’s July 7 judgment. The association said the ruling has effectively left women advocates without a remedy under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

The petition pointed out that the high court’s view — that women lawyers can only s

See Full Page