When an Internal Complaints Committee has not been constituted, the complaint is not time barred.

During the petitioner’s tenure as librarian at IIT, Kharagpur,a complaint was made against him in the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) alleging sexual misconduct. As a result of the complaint, a notice was issued to the petitioner removing him from service.  The complaint was filed before the Women Cell and subsequently an additional complaint was filed to the ICC after its constitution. It is the contention of the petitioner that by the time an additional complaint was filed before the ICC, the limitation period of 3 months had lapsed. The Petitioner claimed that the entire proceeding was without jurisdiction since the limitation period provided by Section 9 of the Act deprived and restricted the ICC from entertaining the Complaint.

Whether a complaint is time barred by limitation in the absence of an Internal Complaints Committee.

The Hon’ble High Court held that the complaint in question cannot be accepted to be barred by limitation as on the date when complaint has been made and, thereafter, additional complaint that has been so moved, the Internal Enquiry Committee had not been constituted. Hence, the petition was dismissed.

The petitioner’s contention that the limitation period barred the ICC from taking the complainant’s case was dismissed by the court. It was held by the court that the complainant cannot be forced to do something impossible – take the complaint to a forum which did not exist at the time the complaint was made. Proceedings cannot be said to be vitiated in law and especially in the backdrop that the lady had been pursuing the matter before the authorities even before enforcement of the Act in question.Hence, the rightful decision was made by the ICC by taking the complaint even after the limitation period.  As per the Vishakha guidelines, there existed only a Woman Cell and not an Internal Complaints Committee. The New Law of 2013 cannot extinguish the right of the of the “aggrieved woman” as laid down by the Vishakha guidelines.