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Same gender sexual harassment cases maintainable under POSH act - Calcutta HC
In a verdict delivered in the case of Dr.Malabika Bhattacharjee v Internal Complaints Committee, Vivekananda College and ors., it was held by a single bench consisting of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya those same-gender complaints are maintainable under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
In this case, the action of the Internal Committee of Vivekananda College was challenged as it refused to accept a complaint under this Act on the ground that the complainant and the respondent belonged to the same gender. It was observed that section 2(m) of the POSH Act contains the word “persons”. Thus, it includes persons of all genders. The University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015 was referred and was argued that these regulations are broad enough and cover same-gender allegations too.
The Court remarked that it might be a little odd that people of same-gender complain against each other of sexual harassment, it is not “improbable”, especially in the present context where Indian Society is adopting a dynamic mode and where same-sex marriages may be legalized soon. Furthermore, the Court also said how “sexual harassment” in section 2(n) is not a static concept and it is important to interpret the same considering the social background and perspective.
The court further added that “A person of any gender may feel threatened and sexually harassed when her/his modesty or dignity as a member of the said gender is offended by any of the acts, as contemplated in Section2(n), irrespective of the sexuality and gender of the perpetrator of the act.”
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