"No law existed to protect working women. So the Supreme Court wrote one."
Bhanwari Devi was employed by the Rajasthan Government as a social worker (Saathin) under the Women’s Development Project. In 1992, while preventing the child marriage of a nine-month-old infant in Bhateri village, she was brutally gang-raped by influential upper-caste men.
Meet the women and jurists who converted a brutal injustice into a nationwide shield.
In 1995, a Sessions Court acquitted all the accused with shocking remarks, claiming "elderly village men of high caste would not rape a lower caste woman". Outraged by the systemic misogyny, women rights advocates united under the collective name "Vishaka" and approached the Supreme Court directly under Article 32.
The court had to balance the doctrine of separation of powers with the urgent need to protect fundamental rights.
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A 3-judge bench led by CJI J.S. Verma delivered a masterpiece of judicial statesmanship: 1. **Defined Sexual Harassment**: Unwelcome physical contact, demands for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography. 2. **Mandated Internal Complaints Committees (ICC)**: Every organization with 10+ employees must have an ICC headed by a woman. 3. **Universal Applicability**: Binding on all private and public sector workplaces across India under Article 141.
Under Article 141, the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts and authorities in India.
The Vishaka Guidelines operated as the supreme law of the land for 16 years. In 2013, Parliament formally codified these principles into **The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act)**. Today, millions of working women across India are protected because of one case that refused to be silenced.
When a social worker was assaulted for stopping child marriage and the legislature had no law, the Supreme Court created binding law: The Vishaka Guidelines.
Supreme Court lays down Vishaka Guidelines filling legislative vacuum under Article 141.
Parliament enacts Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act.
Supreme Court issues nationwide directions in Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa to enforce POSH Act.
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