POSH Act | Central Complaints Committee Can’t Recommend Action Against Employee Once It Concludes That His Conduct Doesn’t Constitute Sexual Harassment: Bomaby High Court

The High Court was considering a petition challenging the order imposing the penalty of Reprimand on the Petitioner, based on the recommendation in the report of the Central Complaints Committee (CCC).

The Division Bench of Justice Manjusha Deshpande and Justice Bharati Dangre held, “Upon going through the order of penalty imposed by the Competent Authority dated 24.9.2020, it is evident that the disciplinary authority has imposed the penalty of ‘Reprimand’ solely on the basis of the recommendation made by the CCC. The CCC is a Committee specially constituted to address the grievances of sexual harassment, hence once the Committee has formed an opinion that the conduct of the Petitioner did not constitute ‘sexual harassment’, it could not have recommended any action against the Petitioner. It should have simply closed the matter and dismissed the complaint.”

Advocate Vishal P. Shirke represented the Petitioner, while Advocate S. P. Bharti represented the Respondents.

Factual Background

The Petitioner was appointed as a Manager in the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and was working in the Department of Economic Analysis and Research (DEAR) in the Mumbai Head Office. While working at DEAR, he noticed that a few lady officers and employees were in the habit of spending almost an hour gossiping, loud talking and disturbing the office environment. This was repeated in the afternoon as well as sometimes in the evening. This fact was brought to the notice of the Chief General Manager of DEAR, and a complaint was made by the Petitioner. Since no cognisance was taken of his complaints, he thought it appropriate to videograph the conduct of the lady staff members in his mobile phone, who were continuously disturbing the office environment. This recording was made to present it as evidence to the Chief General Manager.

He thereafter addressed an email along with the videos recorded by him, to support his complaint about the disturbance created by the lady staff members. As per the petitioner, the staff members, i.e. the lady officers, conspired against the Petitioner by filing a false complaint of sexual harassment against him. An undated complaint was addressed by the lady staff members to the Chief General Manager, alleging that the Petitioner had recorded videos without their consent at the workplace whenever the ladies were communicating amongst themselves. On receiving the said complaint, the Chief General Manager of DEAR forwarded it to the CCC. When the said complaint was still pending, the DEAR had passed an order relieving the Petitioner with immediate effect. Although he was relieved, he was not granted any other posting. The complainants also apprehended that the Petitioner may morph the videos for wrong use. Therefore, it was requested that the Petitioner should be removed from the department or in the alternative, the ladies in the department should be sanctioned leave. In the report, the CCC recorded that there was no sexual harassment by the Petitioner but recommended that the Bank may take suitable action against the Petitioner under the provisions of NABARD (Staff) Rules 1982.

Reasoning

Noting that the Central Complaints Committee (CCC) was constituted by the Respondents for addressing the grievance against the complaints of sexual harassment in their establishment, the Bench held that the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 would be squarely applicable to the respondents. The CCC had conducted the inquiry by calling upon the lady staff members of the NABARD, who filed complaints against the Petitioner, and after hearing their side, had also granted an opportunity to the Petitioner to put forth his side. The Petitioner had conceded to the fact that he did record the lady staff members whenever they gathered together in groups and chatted, thereby causing disturbance.

The Bench noted that the CCC had recorded a finding that there was no element of ‘sexual harassment’ in recording the videos of the complainants, i.e. the lady staff members in the office of DEAR. Even the apprehension of the complaints that the petitioner might use the videos had been turned down by the CCC by observing that, since the videos had not been misused, mere apprehension of complainants did not fall within the jurisdiction of the CCC to initiate any action under the POSH Act, 2013.

Thus, allowing the petition and holding that the CCC had exceeded its jurisdiction by making a recommendation to the Competent Authority to take suitable action against the Petitioner, the Benchs stated, “Similarly, acting on the recommendation of the CCC, the Competent Authority has committed an error by imposing penalty of ‘Reprimand’ without application of his mind or making any independent inquiry, thus the order passed by the Chief General Manager and Competent Authority dated 24.9.2020 deserves to be quashed and set aside.”

Cause Title: Dr. Mohinder Kumar v. The Chairman (Neutral Citation: 2026:BHC-OS:1445-DB)

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