New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking to bring registered political parties under the ambit of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, stating it would “open a Pandora’s box”.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Atul S Chandurkar observed that political parties do not qualify as workplaces under the Act, as members join voluntarily and without remuneration.

“How do you equate political parties as workplace? When a person joins a political party, it is not employment. It is not a job as they join political parties on their own volition and on non-remuneration basis. How can the law against sexual harassment at workplace include political parties? This will open a Pandora's box to blackmail the members,” the bench remarked.

The court was hearing an appeal against a 2022 Kerala High Court verdict which held that, in the absence of an employer-employee relationship, political parties were not obligated to set up Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs).

Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, representing petitioner Yogamaya M G, argued that despite active participation of women in political organisations, only the CPM had instituted an ICC.

This is not the first time the apex court has declined to entertain a plea on this issue. A similar Public Interest Litigation (PIL) had previously been turned down.

PTI