ERGO Volume 3 | Issue 4

• Published date: 05 May 2021
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Insurance, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Health & Safety, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Insurance Laws and Products
• Law Firm: Khaitan & Co
• Author: Mr Anshul Prakash, Deepak Kumar and Deeksha Malik

01. Regulatory Updates

Maharashtra Government notifies Industrial Courts as Appellate Authority under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH Act)

By way of a notification in the Official Gazette dated 31 March 2021, the Industries, Energy and Labour Department, Government of Maharashtra, appointed Industrial Courts constituted under Section 10 of the Maharashtra Industrial Relations Act, 1947, as the Appellate Authority under the PoSH Act.

This development comes against the backdrop of the order of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Dasharath Kallappa Bhosale v State of Maharashtra & Others [Writ Petition Number 786 of 2021], wherein the petitioner challenged an order passed by the Local Complaints Committee, Pune, imposing penalty on the petitioner under the PoSH Act. An appeal was preferred before the Industrial Court, Pune, which was rejected on the ground that no notification had been issued as per Rule 11 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013 (PoSH Rules), appointing the Industrial Court as the Appellate Authority, and therefore, the court lacked jurisdiction to try and dispose of the appeal.

Rule 11 of the PoSH Rules requires an Appellate Authority to be notified under Section 2(a) of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. No such notification had been issued, and the absence of a notified Appellate Authority rendered the petitioner devoid of an appropriate appellate forum. The Bombay High Court granted a stay on the operation of the impugned order dated 3 December 2020 and directed the Assistant Government Pleader to file an affidavit addressed to the concerned officer to clarify whether a notification had been issued to notify the Appellate Authority as stipulated by law, and if not, the time frame within which the notification would be issued.

In response to the same, the Government of Maharashtra ultimately appointed 20 Industrial Courts for the respective specified areas to exercise the functions of an Appellate Authority under the PoSH Act in respect of industrial establishments in relation to which the State Government is the appropriate government.

Tamil Nadu notifies amendments to the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, 1950

By way of a notification in the Official Gazette dated 24 March 2021, the Government of Tamil Nadu issued certain amendments to the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, 1950 (Rules).

As per the Rules, the manager of the factory is required to maintain a muster roll of all the workers employed in the factory, and entries are required to be made at the commencement of each period of work. While the extant regime stipulated that if the daily attendance is noted in the register of adult workers, or the particulars required under the rule are noted in any other register, a separate muster roll need not be maintained, the amendment has proceeded to set out a more detailed approach. The...