UNION OF INDIA AND ORS
DELHI HIGH COURT
W.P.(C) 14403/2022 and CM APPL. 43979/2022
Ever since POSH ACT came into existence, it's implementation has always been in issue. Some or the other way the accused finds a way out whether it maybe because of delay or non conduct of proper investigation.
So, I am going to walk you through a instance on which recently Delhi High Court has gave their observation on constitution of ICC i.e. Internal complaints committee.
Introduction:
This is a case is of sexual harassment at IFCI Factors Ltd. a government undertaking organisation and the court fined the organisation with a cost of Rs 1,00,000/- to be payable to the victim who was harassed by the senior employee and was later harassed by a multiplicity of inquiries and procedures conducted again and again by the ICC of the organisation.
Facts in issue:
Is the constitution of ICC in the organisations merely on paper enough and relieves the institutions from liability under the POSH Act? Should companies/institutions be more active and sensitive in dealing with complaints of sexual harassment? Can delays and lacunas during the inquiry and investigation make the institution liable under the Act?
Facts of the case:
This is a case of a government undertaking organisation whose employee registered a complaint against another fellow employee who is a senior functionary in the institution, against sexual harassment. This case was registered on July 2019 and accordingly ICC was constituted on 30th july 2019 in this regard to deal with this complaint and also for proper investigation ut due to various different reasons and technical fault ICC was constituted again and again three more times. After the submitted report of ICC on 11 March 2020, ordered the accused to furnish a written apology to the victim of the sexual harassment. However accused didn't complied with the order. The petitioner had challenged the letter in question on the ground that since re-examination was directed, she no longer wanted to participate in the enquiry as the complaint dated back to 2019. It was her case that she did not want be subjected to a second round of proceedings before the ICC as it was extremely frustrating and torturous. Also in this case accused employee and his statutory remedy of appeal under section 18 of POSH Act cannot be taken away and the contention of the victim was that the she cannot be subjected to harassment and multiple inquiries.
Observations of the court:
Accepting the contentions of the victim/sufferer to not participate in the ICC proceedings one more time and that she does not even wish to seek an apology letter from the accused, the Court allowed the victim to refrain from another round of ICC proceedings.
The court relieved the accused as well, however it imposed the cost of Rs 1,00,000 on the organisation to be paid to the victim for constituting and committee several times and forcing her to participate in the proceedings again and again.
The Delhi High Court has observed that institutions cannot escape the liability for dragging on sensitive sexual harassment complaints under Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act and that management and authorities must behave in a responsible manner. Also the inquiry needs to be done more efficiently without delay and mismanagement.
The court observed that constitution of ICC is of utmost importance in sexual harassment cases.
Comments