Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan
AIR 1997 SC 3011 · 3-judge bench
Filed after the brutal gang rape of a social worker in Rajasthan who was attacked for trying to stop child marriage, this case confronted the total absence of any law on workplace sexual harassment at the time.
With no existing legislation to rely on, the Court itself laid down binding guidelines — the "Vishaka Guidelines" — defining sexual harassment and requiring every workplace to have a complaints mechanism, treating international human-rights conventions as filling the legislative gap.
These guidelines governed workplace sexual harassment in India for 16 years until Parliament finally passed the POSH Act, 2013 — a rare, striking example of the judiciary creating binding law in the complete absence of legislation.
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