The Vishaka Guidelines were a set of binding judicial directions, or a judgment, issued by the Supreme Court of India in 1997. They originated in the landmark case of Vishaka and Others v. State of Rajasthan. The judgment was a response to the absence of specific legislation to protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace, a problem highlighted by the gang rape of social worker Bhanwari Devi in 1992. The Supreme Court, exercising its power under Articles 32 and 142, ruled that sexual harassment violates a woman's fundamental rights to equality, dignity, and to practice any profession, guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution.
The guidelines were intended to be enforced as law until Parliament enacted a specific statute. They defined sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexually tinted behaviour, including physical contact, demands for sexual favors, and sexually coloured remarks. Key provisions mandated that every employer was responsible for taking preventive steps and establishing a Complaints Committee, which had to be headed by a woman and include at least 50% women members.
The Vishaka Guidelines are directly connected to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (the POSH Act). The POSH Act superseded the guidelines in 2013, converting the judicial directions into a formal statutory law. While the core definition and the principle of employer responsibility remained the same, the Act replaced the Complaints Committee with the Internal Complaints Committee (IC) and introduced the Local Complaints Committee (LCC) for smaller workplaces.