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Created: 25 December 2017

NEW DELHI:  Law of Sexual Harassment at Workplace: Practice and Procedure authored by Mr. Amish Tandon, Advocate and published by Niyogi Books was officially released at National Sports Club of India, Mathura Road, Opp. Pragati Maidan Gate 3, New Delhi at 7:30 pm onwards. The book is a comprehensive treatise on the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the Rules thereof. It has forewords from Hon’ble Justice Jayant Nath (Judge, High Court of Delhi); Hon’ble Justice V. Kameswar Rao (Judge, High Court of Delhi); and Hon’ble Justice Manju Goel (Retd.) (Judge, High Court of Delhi). 

The event was presided over by Hon’ble Justice A.K. Pathak (Judge, High Court of Delhi), Hon’ble Justice Jayant Nath (Judge, High Court of Delhi) and Hon’ble Justice V. Kameswar Rao (Judge, High Court of Delhi). The event was attended by various Judges of the Delhi High Court and Politicians, including Hon’ble Justice Indermeet Kaur (Judge, High Court of Delhi), Hon’ble Justice Vibhu Bakhru (Judge, High Court of Delhi), Hon’ble Justice P.S Teji (Judge, High Court of Delhi), Hon’ble Justice I.S Mehta (Judge, High Court of Delhi), Hon’ble Justice Rekha Palli (Judge, High Court of Delhi) and Shri Jayant Sinha (Hon’ble Minister of State for Civil Aviation). 

Additionally, various distinguished members of the Delhi High Court Bar also attended the event, including Mr. Kirti Uppal, Sr. Advocate (President, Delhi High Court Bar Association); Mr. J.P. Sengh (Vice President, Delhi High Court Bar Association); Mr. Sandeep P Agarwal, Sr. Advocate (Member, Executive Committee, National Company Law Tribunal Bar Association); Mr. Sudhanshu Batra, Sr. Advocate. 

Mr. Bikash De Niyogi, publisher addressed the audience by stating the need of this book given the various cases and statements by various public figures & celebrities, reminding us that the awareness as well as understanding of this law is still at a fledgling stage, especially for those with a non-legal background. Be it any line of work, women and men today work shoulder to shoulder, it is, thus, imperative for us for us to evolve a code of conduct in the workplace so that gender domain is properly respected. He also noted that the law lays down a broad guideline but it depends how we assimilate it and implement it. However, there are several issues which remain unaddressed by the courts, thus this book feels like a book with purpose. 

Justice A. K. Pathak traced the historical background of the law and discussed several key aspects of the Act, including the meaning and scope of the expression ‘sexual harassment’. He further complemented the author for coming out with an exhaustive commentary on the subject at a very young age. While commenting on the authorship, Justice Jayant Nath said “the book attempts to cover all facets of the new legislation. It provides a brief, simplistic and clear enunciation of the law”. He further added “the book contains the comprehensive database of all judgements rendered in the field and is a must for lawyers, corporate houses and all professionals dealing with the Act.” 

Justice V. Kameswar Rao praised various features of the book, especially the draft sexual harassment and conciliation policy which could be easily utilized by corporate while drafting and updating their internal policies. While lauding the author for the book, he called for its periodical updation. Mr. Amish Tandon, the author of the book, gave an outline of the work and how it started shaping as early as in 2014 when he started advising on issues of sexual harassment at workplace. He said “My approach behind crafting and structuring the book has been very simple and straightforward. A holistic and terse analysis of the law in user-friendly language, including the substantive and procedural aspects thereof. The essence of all relevant case laws inserted. The desired objective was to make it useful for all including lawyers, students, HR and Legal Teams of Companies, Members of Complaints Committees and all those interested to know about the area.”