The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking to extend the law on prevention of sexual harassment at workplaces to political parties, holding that parties cannot be treated as “workplaces” and their members are not “employees.”
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai, and also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, said adopting such an expansive view would open a “Pandora’s box.” “How do you declare a political party a workplace? Is there any employment there? When you join a political party, you do not get a job. There is no payment for your work,” the bench said.
The court was hearing a special leave petition filed by advocate Yogamaya MG, through advocate-on-record Sriram P, challenging a 2022 Kerala high court judgment. The high court had ruled that political parties were under no obligation to constitute Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) as required under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act), since party members are not employees in the conventional sense.
Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the POSH Act made no exception for any entity, public or private, and that excluding political parties from its ambit left women workers in politics unprotected.
{{/usCountry}}Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the POSH Act made no exception for any entity, public or private, and that excluding political parties from its ambit left women workers in politics unprotected.
{{/usCountry}}Despite these arguments, the bench was categorical that political parties cannot be equated with workplaces. Observing that membership does not create an employer-employee relationship, the CJI-led bench refused to interfere, leaving intact the Kerala high court’s ruling.
The petition contended that such exclusion is arbitrary, discriminatory, and violative of Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution. It argued that women political workers, including volunteers, campaigners, interns, and grassroots activists, function in highly vulnerable environments without any formal grievance redressal mechanism. “The arbitrary denial of these protections defeats the very object of the law,” the plea said.
The petition named as respondents the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People’s Party (NPP), All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC), along with the Union of India and the Election Commission of India.
The petition sought to declare political parties as “employers” under Section 2(g) of the POSH Act, thereby making it mandatory for them to set up ICCs.
Highlighting inconsistencies in the existing system, it pointed out that while CPI(M) has established ICCs with external members, AAP’s committee structure remains opaque. BJP and Congress, it added, handle complaints through disciplinary committees or state units, a “deviation from the statutory scheme” envisioned under the Act.
In July 2025, Yogamaya filed a writ petition in the top court seeking similar reliefs but withdrew it in August, reserving the right to directly challenge the Kerala high court ruling.