The HC observed that ” Object of Vishaka guidelines defeated if complainant is coerced to withdraw complaint: Bombay High Court in plea for quashing of FIR alleging harassment by male colleague, the Court noted that the complainant may have been compelled to file the affidavit. The plea was dismissed by the Court as the offences were spelt out.”

Download the Judgement copy here :  Aurangabad HC - Withdrawing criminal complaint plea not permitted (1190 downloads )

The post Aurangabad HC – Withdrawing criminal complaint plea not permitted first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

The ICC concluded that the allegations cannot be termed as sexual harassment at workplace and complaint is rejected.  Reproducing the recommendations of the ICC:

” “After detailed deliberations, the committee observed that both the complainant Ms. Bibha Pandey as well as the respondent Shri Ashwini Kumar Vats have entered into a relationship with each other on personal basis, with mutual consent. The allegations of sexual, mental and emotional harassment is not substantiated as the actions on the part of the Respondent and the allegations cannot be termed as sexual harassment at workplace as defined under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013. Therefore, the present complaint is rejected being non maintainable as per the provisions of the Act of 2013.

The Committee observes from the records available that the Complainant as well as the Respondent, have acted in a manner which is unbecoming of an Officer employee of the Bank as they have indulged in inappropriate acts, not maintaining good conduct and discipline expected of them. The Respondent, being at a very senior position, failed to maintain the dignity and decorum of his position. No case under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 is made out. Both the Complainant as well as the Respondent have behaved and acted in a manner which is not befitting to the post held by them. On the contrary, it is detrimental to the organization and has vitiated the atmosphere of the Bank. The competent authority may take suitable action against them as deemed fit.”

The High Court stated that:

“`Moral Policing’ is not the job of the Management or of the ICC. Any consensual relationship among adults would not be the concern of the Management or of the ICC, so long as the said relationship does not affect the working and the discipline of the organisation and is not contrary to the Rules or code of conduct binding on the said employees. It is only if a complaint is made of sexual harassment under the Act that the Management can constitute the ICC to enquire into the same. The ICC cannot make comments on the personal conduct of the parties and the ICC’s jurisdiction would be restricted to the allegations of sexual harassment and whether a complaint is made out or not, to that effect. Under these circumstances, this Court has no hesitation in holding that the last paragraph of the
recommendation of the ICC, which comments on the conduct of the parties and recommends to the competent authority to take action against the Petitioner and Respondent No. 3, for their inappropriate disciplinary conduct, is not tenable and is liable to be set aside.”

Summing up, a personal relationship between two consenting adults which does not adversely affect the working and discipline of the organisation cannot be acted upon unless it is a compalint of sexual harassment at work.

Download the Judgement Copy here: Woman pilot moves Jammu & Kashmir High Court alleging sexual harassment (2420 downloads )

The post Delhi HC Bibha Pandey and Punjab National Bank first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

“Sexual harassment, as contemplated in the 2013 Act, has to pertain to the dignity of a person, which relates to her/his gender and sexuality;which does not mean that any person of the same-gender cannot hurt the modesty or dignity as envisaged by the 2013 Act”, HC said.

Download the excerpts here : Calcutta HC - Same gender person and raise a complaint not barred under Act (1248 downloads )

The post Calcutta HC – Same gender person can raise a complaint first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

While handling a sexual harassment compliant, what should the Internal Complaints Committee keep in mind while conducting Inquiries?

Download the document here: Essential tips for the ICC while conducting a POSH Inquiry (4152 downloads )

The post Essential tips for the ICC while conducting a POSH Inquiry first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

We have collated a list of important duties of the Internal Complaints Committee. Download the document here Duties of IC (3730 downloads )

Please download the checklist (.pdf) here:
[Download not found]

The post Duties of the Internal Complaints Committee first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

We have designed a format to assist the aggrieved individual / victim / complainant in making a formal complaint to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

Please download the Complaints form (.pdf) here: Template for registering sexual harassment complaint (8915 downloads )

The post Template for registering a sexual harassment complaint first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

Download the inquiry report format (.pdf) here: Inquiry report format (11205 downloads )

The post Inquiry report format on completion of Inquiry first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

The document contains details on Quid-Pro-Quo and a case study.

Please download the Quid-Pro-Quo document (.pdf) here: Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment at workplace (3452 downloads )

The post Quid-Pro-Quo sexual harassment first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

It is important to understand conciliation and its procedure. The document aims at guiding you through a conciliation procedure.

Download the document (.pdf) here: Conciliation procedure under POSH Act (4888 downloads )

The post Conciliation procedure for dispute resolution first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.

Here is a third party harassment case that we handled in one of the companies which encountered this dilemma and the ICC handled the case humanely learning a great deal along the way.

Case Study:

The victim was a job seeker (woman) living close to an industrial area around Bangalore.  The respondent was a contracted security guard of a small manufacturing company. It so happened that the victim had come to the company premises to submit her resume for a job. The security guard received her resume and promised to call her back in case she is shortlisted by the HR. The HR after going through the resume found her to be unsuitable and specifically told the security guard not to entertain such resumes since it is totally unrelated to the kind of work they do.

However the security guard called her number (mentioned in the resume) and informed her that she has been shortlisted and asked her to come for an interview the following Sunday .The victim, without realizing that most companies are closed on Sundays, chose to come for the interview at 9 A.M.

On the day, when she came to the company for the interview, the respondent was waiting for her. He led her to a room stating that the HR would come there for the interview. He went out, checked the surrounding and found no one outside. He went back to the room, locked it from the inside and tried molesting her. The victim quickly realized his intentions starting crying for help, banging on the door and shouting loudly.

Apparently a gardener tending the plants heard her cries and quickly rushed to the spot and started shouting from outside. The respondent (security guard) realized that he is in trouble, opened the door and ran outside. He escaped through the main gate and before the gardener could call for help, he was gone.

The victim was shocked. The gardener offered her water to drink and escorted her to an autorickshaw outside that drove her home.

The victim returned to the company the next day with her husband to complain to the management. As soon as the management heard her story, they called the ICC to take up the matter immediately.

Will this be the responsibility of the company’s POSH committee?

No it does not since the victim (the woman) and the respondent (security guard) both are not the employees of the company. It would have directly come under the scope of the ICC, if at least one of them, either the victim or the alleged harasser were employees of the company.

Ideally, what is the responsibility of the ICC in such a case?

ICC met the victim, took her complaint in detail and offered to help her in whatever way possible. It is important to note that the right thing to do would be to assist the victim even if it does not come under the scope. At the time of need, when the victim is scared, it is important that the ICC of the company offers help.

What actions did the ICC of the company take?

1. The gardener was interrogated as witness to get complete details of her account which was documented.
2. The vendor was called for a hearing as the respondent had committed the act and fled the scene.
3. The vendor was asked to submit all the personal details of the respondent (security guard).
4. As the vendor company did not have an ICC, the ICC of the company helped her lodge a written complaint in the local police station.The ICC also furnished all the relevant documentation that they had collected post their initial investigation about the incident along with all the details ofthe alleged harasser.
5. The ICC having gone through the existing Background Verification Process, recommended to the management to restructure the Background Verification process with additional checks, applicable to all the existing and new vendors with immediate effect
6. The vendor was given our company policy on POSH and an agreement was put in place to ensure no one from the vendor company, be it office boys, security guard or housekeeping staff would enter premises without having gone through the company POSH policy.
7. An awareness session in Kannada was arranged on POSH to all the third party contractors working in the company.

It is important to note that ICC needs to focus on the value they want to create which is of a larger significance to the organisation, rather than scope of work.

Hence the role of ICC cannot be completely defined and boundaries drawn. There are times when they need to go beyond the call of duties to ensure they do the “right thing”.

The post Going beyond boundaries – Internal Complaints Committee first appeared on Metis POSH Consulting Service LLP.