Internal Complaints Committee

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”-John 8:32

St. Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur abides by its motto “the truth will set you free”. We at St. Thomas, believe that the principles of justice, humanity and dignity should be dispensed irrespective of caste, creed, social status and gender of a person. Therefore in keeping with the ethos of this institution and in acquiescence with the instructions of National Commission for Women and the directives of Hon’ble Supreme Court Judgment (Attachment 1) on the subject of sexual harassment of women in the workplace, an Internal Complaints Committee for taking into account the complaints of sexual harassment of women staff and students of St. Thomas College (Autonomous) was established in November 2016. Information regarding the Act; Rules and functions of ICC are as given below as downloadable pdfs.

Procedure for filing a Complaint with ICC St. Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur-1 (Main Steps)

• Complaints regarding Sexual Harassment must be made in written (legible handwriting) or typed on paper.
• Nature of the complaint should be clearly stated in detail with dates and locations.
• As per stipulation of The Act the aggrieved person can make the written complaint of sexual harassment at workplace within a period of three months from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of last incident.
• The complaint must be in no case anonymous and the aggrieved person’s name and address should be legible.
• As per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013, in case the aggrieved woman is unable to make a complaint on account of her physical incapacity, a complaint may be filed inter alia by her relative or friend or her co-worker or an officer of the National Commission for Woman or State Women’s Commission or any person who has knowledge of the incident, with the written consent of the aggrieved woman.
• The written complaint should be handed over to any internal member of the ICC- STC.

Working of Internal Complaints Committee –Women (ICC- St. Thomas College, Thrissur) will be as per guidelines issued (Table 1- attachment 2).

• All complaints will be dealt with confidentially.
• Only matters pertaining to sexual harassment and/or discrimination of staff and students will be under the jurisdiction of ICC.
• Other conflicts and grievances if any should be submitted to the respective Grievance Redressal Cells (either for Staff or Students) or to the Discipline Committee.
• All students and staff are bound to obey the rules specified in the College Manual and any complaint regarding the same is not under the purview of the ICC