Section 9 of the POSH Act gives a survivor only three months to file a complaint, extendable to another three if reasons are recorded. It’s high time the limitation period is extended
The Supreme Court’s recent judgment in the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) case has been described as “unprecedented”. A faculty member accused the vice-chancellor of repeated sexual harassment, the last incident allegedly occurring in April 2023. She filed a formal complaint in December 2023 — outside the three-month limitation (extendable to six months) prescribed by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act). On this basis, the court held that her complaint was time-barred. Yet in an extraordinary move, it directed that the vice-chancellor must forever carry this judgment on his résumé, declaring that “the wrong may be forgiven, but not forgotten”. This is not justice — neither for the complainant who receives no hearing of her allegations, nor for the accused who bears taint without trial. Above all, it is a missed chance to address the core problem — the time-limitation trap in the POSH Act.