POSH News: Rajasthan HC Says Sexual Harassment Online Is Still Workplace Harassment

Written by: Rajkanya Mahapatra

Every week we bring you a roundup of news and opinion on the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, popularly called the POSH Act, from Indian media, focusing on workplace sexual harassment and its far-reaching effect on equality, equity and mental health of employees of diverse gender identities.

Here are four reported stories on POSH between Jan 11 and Jan 17, 2021: 

1) A former BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) employee had died by suicide in 2019. In the note she’d left behind, she alleges that her colleagues and supervisor sexually harassed her. The victim also mentioned to her sister a day before her death that they had tried to rape her. She had filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell of the Telangana Police a week before the incident alleging that some of her coworkers had hacked her phone.

Citing negligence on the part of the Telangana police, the victim’s mother had filed a writ petition and had also approached the CBI to probe the case in July, 2020. The Supreme Court has now instructed the Telangana government to assign a senior official to the case.

Read more about the story, here.

2) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan while inaugurating an awareness program on crimes against women said that women going out for work would’ve to register themselves in the system so that they can be tracked for their safety. The government will also launch a helpline and install panic buttons on public transport that women can avail when required.

Read more about the story, here.

3) The Rajasthan High Court while presiding over a petition filed by the Chief Manager of Bank of Baroda who wanted charges of sexual harassment filed by the Disciplinary Committee of the bank, dropped.

The petitioner contested the decision of the Disciplinary Committee on the grounds that it was beyond their jurisdiction. To which Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma said, “In the present digital world, work place for employees working in the Bank and who have earlier worked in the same Branch and later on shifted to different branches which may be situated in different States has to be treated completely as one work place on a digital platform.”

Read more about the story, here.

4) The ICC of an institution in West Bengal had refused to take on a sexual harassment complaint as both parties were of the same gender. The Calcutta HC while hearing the writ repetition filed by the victim said, “…under Section 2(m) of the POSH Act, 2013, the term ‘respondent’ brings within it’s fold ‘a person’, thereby including persons of all genders.”

Read more about the story, here. 

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