Legal Language including Legal

Writing and General English

Date-Day: 30th Sep 2023-
Monday
3rd Yr BLS.LLB ( Sem 5)
Prof. Viraj Deshpande
Assistant Professor (Law)
ABACL
 Previous Lecture’s Topics
MODULE No. 6:

Judicial Material

1]DK BASU vs STATE OF WEST BENGAL AIR 1997 SC 610

2] M.C. Mehta V/s.Union of Indian AIR 1987 SC 965
 Todays Topics
• VISHAKHA AND ORS. V. STATE OF RAJASTHAN(AIR 1997
SC 3011)

• Module no.7- Official Reports and other specified Law

reports
Background:
• Vishaka & Ors. v State of Rajasthan (1997) 6 SCC 241 is a
milestone judgment given by the honorable Supreme Court of
India that deals with aspects of sexual harassment of women in
the workplace.
• The supreme court formulated the very famous Vishaka
guidelines and made it mandatory for both private and public
sectors to establish mechanisms to redress sexual harassment
complaints. The Judgment was delivered by the bench Chief
Justice J.S. Verma, Justice Sujata V. Manohar, And Justice
B.N. Kirpal.
FACTS:
Bhanwari Devi, a social worker in a program to prevent child
marriages, intervened to prevent child marriage in an influential Gujjar
family.
• While Bhanwari Devi did an admirable job despite the protests, the
family was hell-bent on vengeance. Ramakant Gujjar and five of his
men gang-raped her in front of her husband in a brutal manner.
• Her subsequent attempt to file a police report was met with apathy
for a long time, and once she did, she was subjected to further
stigma and cruelty.
• The trial court acquitted the accused due to a lack of evidence, but
Bhanwari Devi and a sympathizer filed a writ petition with the
Supreme Court.
Issues raised:

1.If formal guidelines were required to deal with incidents

involving sexual harassment in the workplace?
2.Whether sexual harassment at the workplace amounts to the
violation of the fundamental rights of a woman?
3.If the employer has any responsibility in cases of sexual
harassment by its employee or to its employees at a
workplace?
Petitioners arguments

• A writ petition, seeking the writ of mandamus was filed by

the ‘Vishaka’ group which comprised of various women’s
rights activists, NGOs, and other social activists.
• They put forward their argument that the indecent acts of
sexual harassment of women at Workplace violate the
fundamental rights enshrined under Article14, 15, 19(1)(g)
and 21 of the Constitution of India.
• The petitioners brought the attention of the Hon’ble court to
the loophole that the legislation has regarding the provision
of a safe working environment for women. They requested
the Hon’ble Court to frame guidelines for preventing sexual
harassment at Workplace.
Respondent’s arguments

• The learned Solicitor General appearing on behalf of the

respondents (with their consent) in this case did
something unusual i.e, supported the petitioners.
• The respondent assisted the Hon’ble court in figuring
out an effective method to curb sexual harassment and
in structuring the guidelines for the prevention of the
same.
• Fali S. Nariman – the amicus curiae of the Hon’ble court
along with Ms. Naina Kapur and Ms. Meenakshi
provided assistance to the Hon’ble court in dealing with
the said case.
Judgement of the court:

• The Court in this case, observed that sexual harassment at the workplace was
violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution under Articles
14, 16, 19, and 21. The Court further defined sexual harassment as unwelcome
“sexually determined behavior (whether directly or indirectly) like physical contact
and advances, a demand or request for sexual favors, sexually colored remarks,
showing pornography, or any other unwelcome physical verbal or non-verbal
conduct of sexual nature”.
• The Court opined that it is deemed to be discriminatory when the woman believes
that objecting to sexual harassment would disadvantage her in her employment
in terms of recruiting or promotion or the creation of a hostile work environment.
• As a result, sexual harassment does not have to include physical contact. Sexual
harassment can be defined as any act that creates a hostile work environment,
such as cracking lewd jokes, verbal abuse, spreading rumors, and so on.
• “Vishaka Guidelines”
• In its judgment, the Court provided a set of guidelines for
employers – as well as other responsible persons or institutions
– to immediately ensure the prevention of sexual harassment. In
accordance with Article 141 of India’s Constitution, these
guidelines were to be considered law until appropriate
legislation was created:
• Duty of the Employer or other responsible persons in work
places and other institutions.
• It shall be the duty of the employer or other responsible
persons in work places or other institutions to prevent or deter
the commission of acts of sexual harassment and to provide the
procedures for the resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts
of sexual harassment by taking all steps required
• Definition.
• For this purpose, sexual harassment includes such unwelcome
sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by
implication) as:
a) physical contact and advances
b) a demand or request for sexual favours
c) sexually coloured remarks
d) showing pornography
e) any other unwelcome physical verbal or non-verbal conduct
of sexual nature
• Preventive Steps.
• All employers or persons in charge of a work place – including private
employers – should take the following preventative steps, which include:
a) Express prohibition of sexual harassment as defined above at the work
place should be notified, published and circulated in appropriate ways
b) The Rules/Regulations of Government and Public Sector bodies relating
to conduct and discipline should include rules/regulations prohibiting
sexual harassment and provide for appropriate penalties in such rules
against the offender
c) Appropriate work conditions should be provided in respect of work,
leisure, health and hygiene to further ensure that there is no hostile
environment towards women at work places and no employee woman
should have reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in
connection with her employment
• Criminal Proceedings.
• Where such conduct amounts to a specific offence under the
Indian Penal Code or under any other law the employer shall
initiate appropriate action by making a complaint with the
appropriate authority. In particular, it should ensure that victims,
or witnesses are not victimized or discriminated against while
dealing with complaints of sexual harassment.
• The victims of sexual harassment should have the option to seek
transfer of the perpetrator or their own transfer.
• Disciplinary Action.

• Where such conduct amounts to misconduct in employment as

defined by the relevant service rules, appropriate disciplinary
action should be initiated by the employer in accordance with
those rules.
Complaint Mechanism. Whether or not such conduct constitutes an
offence under law or a breach of the service rules, an appropriate complaint
mechanism should be created in the employer’s organization for redress of
the complaint made by the victim. Such complaint mechanism should ensure
time bound treatment of complaints.
Complaints Committee. The complaint mechanism should be adequate to
provide, where necessary, a Complaints Committee, a special counsellor or
other support service, including the maintenance of confidentiality.
Workers’ Initiative. Employees should be allowed to raise issues of sexual
harassment at workers meeting and in other appropriate forum and it
should be affirmatively discussed in Employer-Employee Meetings.
Awareness. Awareness of the rights of female employees in this regard
should be created in particular by prominently notifying the guidelines (and
appropriate legislation when enacted on the subject) in suitable manner.
• Where sexual harassment occurs as a result of an act or omission
by any third party or outsider, the employer and person in
charge will take all steps necessary and reasonable to assist the
affected person in terms of support and preventive action.
Impact
• The Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional principles
of equality and liberty in the Vishaka judgment.
• The Supreme Court of India’s decision merely proposed
guidelines to address the issue of sexual harassment.
• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“Sexual
Harassment Act”), which went into effect on April 23, 2013,
was India’s first law addressing workplace sexual harassment.
• The “Vishaka Guidelines” created by India’s Supreme
Court were the first enforceable civil law guidelines on the
rights of women to be free from violence and harassment
in both public and private employment.
• Despite widespread recognition of her story and the
enactment of laws to protect women from sexual
harassment at work, Bhanwari has waited over 23 years
and is yet to receive justice against her attackers. Her
continued fight is a reminder of the challenges women
continue to face in accessing justice.
• This landmark victory led the Indian
Government to introduce legislation
prohibiting sexual harassment in the
workplace and inspired other reforms
across South Asia – including action
taken in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
MODULE no.7: Law Reports:
• Law reporting developed with the objective of providing
information regarding new precedents set in cases to
law officials of various posts.
• Essentially, these publications highlight the
establishment of new precedents which may aid in
supporting other cases with similar facts.
• The Indian Law Reports Act, 1875
• The Indian Law Reports Act, 1875 was brought into
existence with the idea of curbing the ever-growing
number of private law reports publishers. Several
private law reporters had begun accumulating cases
and case notes and were selling them in bulk.
• The issue here was that the idea behind law reporting is
reporting new precedents and not simply putting
together a huge number of cases. Moreover, only a few
of the reports were genuine and contained compilations
of important cases.
• The Act, however, was not able to fulfil its purpose and was in fact
criticised by many. This is because the Act simply stated that no High
Court shall be obligated to follow such case precedents cited by any
report other than the ones published under the authority of the
Governor-General-in-Council.
• The purpose behind the Act was simple and perhaps even achievable at
that point in time; reducing the number of reports and improving their
quality. However, the Act failed to make any change whatsoever. It was
only applicable to the High Courts and did not mention the matters of
the Privy Council or the Federal Court or the Supreme Court.
• Private non-official law reports continued to be published and still exist
even today. In fact, they are often preferred over official publications.
The Law Commission at present has suggested that the Law Reports
Act be repealed so that any report can serve the basic needs of the
legal world.
SUPREME COURT REPORTS (SCR)
• It is the official Reporter of the Supreme Court judgments. Supreme
Court Reports is governed by the Supreme Court (Council of Law
Reporting) Rules, 1964.The head notes of the judgments are prepared
by Editorial Officers and are approved by the Hon’ble Judges.
• The Supreme Court Reports are published under the supervision of
the Supreme Court Council of Law Reporting consisting of Hon’ble the
Chief Justice of India, two Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court,
Attorney General for India and an Advocate nominated by the
Executive Council of the Supreme Court Bar Association
• Citation: Mohd. Abdul Kadir & ors v. Director General of Police, Assam
& Ors. (2009) 9 SCR 611
AIR:
• ALL INDIA REPORTER AIR is published from 1914 onwards.
• It is a publication of AIR Ltd Nagpur. It is a monthly Journal. AIR
monthly issues are numbered consecutively and loose parts are
bound after completion of year with annual Index.
• There are 10 volumes each year covering Supreme Court and Various
High Court Cases. The volumes are bound States wise and Supreme
Court wise. But all volumes have the same volume number for each
year i.e. Jan-Dec2009 Vol. 96
• All India Reporter (AIR) is India’s oldest law publisher with
comprehensive coverage of all the High Courts and the
Supreme Court of India.
• Judgement Today was launched in the year 1986 with an aim
to report latest Supreme Court rulings at the earliest. Since then
it has maintained its speed and accuracy in reporting the cases
with precise and crisp headnotes.
• Bombay Cases Reporter the complete Law Journal of the Bombay
High Court is serving to the Bench and the bar uninterruptedly for the
last 42 years. Bombay Cases Reporter has completed the 42 years
has entered into 43rd year of its publication in the year 2016.
• The Bombay Cases Reporter started its publication in the year
1975 with one small volume reporting only unreported judgments.
From 1979 it started reporting only reportable judgments of Bombay
High Court, from one small volume in 1975, it has developed
into eleven big volumes in 2015 and reached to this stage.
•
• CRIMINAL LAW JOURNAL
• Criminal Law Journal is a monthly publication covering criminal law
cases decided by Supreme Court of India and High Courts of various
states.
• There are four volumes in a year. But cases are cited without volumes
due to running page numbers on consecutive volumes in the same
year.
• Citation: Mohd. Yasin v. State (N.C.T. OF Delhi) & Ors. 2009 Cri.L.J.
4405 (SC)
• SUPREME COURT CASES
• Supreme Court Cases shortly famous as SCC, is a fortnight publication
of Eastern Book Company, Lucknow publishing since 1969.
• There are eight volumes with usually four or five supplements in a
year bearing the numbers 1 to 12 or 13 i.e. volumes of a year like
2004 bear the numbers 1 to 13 including supplements and volumes
of 2005 also bear numbers 1 to 13 including supplements.
• Citation: Maruti Suzuki Ltd v. CCE (2009) 9 SCC 193
• Company Cases (CC),
• a weekly journal dedicated to Corporate Law - Company Law,
Banking and Insurance which gives CLI its name and has been
the most referred to a journal of its class.

• CC also covers cases relating to Arbitration, FEMA, SEBI, &

Consumer Protection, besides selected English Cases
• Madras Law Journal (CIVIL)
• The oldest, most acknowledged legal journal since 1891. Well-
known for its prompt reporting of research articles and Judgments
selected by a highly qualified editorial board.
• This oldest law journal in India is the first private law journal to be
recognized under the Law Journals Reporting Act.
• Publishes judgments of significance on a wide range of topics of civil
law.
• The All England Law Reports (abbreviated in citations to All ER)
are a long-running series of law reports covering cases from the
court system in England and Wales.
• Established in 1936, the All England Law Reports are a commercially
produced alternative to the "official" reports produced by
the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (under the title The Law
Reports). The reports encompass judgments with headnotes and
catchwords from the House of Lords, both divisions of the Court of
Appeal and all divisions of the High Court.
• The series contains cross-references and hypertext links to both
other All England cases and legislation cited in the Repor
 Next Lecture’s Topics
• Law Magazines
• Comprehension , Grammar Usage
• Contemporary Legal Topics
THANK YOU

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