Report cases directly to Visakha committee: Kerala High Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has held that the disciplinary authority has no power to decide whether to refer a complaint regarding sexual harassment at workplace to the Vishaka committee. “The complaint should be considered directly by the Vishaka committee,”  the court said.   “It is not  for the disciplinary authority to formulate any opinion as to whether any ground exists to inquire into the complaint or not and it shall be for the complaints committee to do such exercise,” the court observed.

A division bench comprising Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon and Justice Anil K. Narendran passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by the Union of India against a Central Administrative Tribunal Order.   The tribunal,  on March 5, 2008 held that the course pursued by the  authority concerned in New Delhi was not correct or proper and that the complaint had necessarily to be placed before the complaints committee headed by a woman officer with such other members in conformity with the law declared by the Supreme Court in the Vishaka case.

The court further observed that the view taken by the tribunal that the matter ought to have been placed for consideration before the complaints committee does not suffer from any error and is liable to be sustained. On December 20, 2006,   Ravindran, Accountant- General,  and Onkar Nath, disciplinary authority, had to cross through the agitators making use of the little space available in between to have entry and exit to his office in Thiruvananthapuram.

This, according to Ravindran was done by him without causing any embarrassment to anybody and still, to precipitate an ongoing protest against the Comptroller and Auditor-General's Office and some officials filed a complaint dated before the chairperson of the committee for redressal of sexual harassment on working women.

As the chairperson (a woman officer) was a subordinate officer of the petitioners, the complaint was forwarded to the headquarters in New Delhi. The competent authority called for a report and,  after considering the same and also after going through the contents of complaint, observed that no instance of any sexual harassment was involved and the position was ordered to be informed to the parties concerned.