The Delhi High Court has recently said that the victim can file a complaint under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention and Redressal) Act 2013 even if the person causing the sexual harassment is an employee of some other department/office. For filing a complaint under this act, it is not necessary that a female employee is sexually harassed by another employee working in her own department/office, only then the victim can file a complaint under this act. This act will also be applicable in those cases where the accused person is an employee of any other department/office. The court has said that as much as the working environment is safe for men, it is also necessary to be safe for women. Even the apprehension by a woman that her safety at workplace may be compromised or endangered is insulting to our constitutional ethos. According to the case, A woman IAS officer had lodged a complaint with the Internal Complaints Committee of her Department /office under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (Prevention and Redressal)Act-2013. In the complaint, Sohail Malik, a 2010 batch IRS officer working in some other department/office of the Central Ministry, was accused of sexual harassment.On the complaint of the woman officer, the Internal Complaints Committee of her office had issued a notice to the accused IRS officer asking him to appear. The accused officer had filed a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal questioning the jurisdiction of the ICC to issue a notice to appear on the complaint of the woman officer. he said that the ICC of one department cannot conduct an inquiry against an employee of another department under this Act on the complaint of its employee because it is beyond the disciplinary control of the department where the complainant is working. Disagreeing with the contention of the accused official, the Central Administrative Tribunal refused to quash the notice issued by the ICC. After which the accused officer moved the Delhi High Court.. A division bench of Justice C Harishankar and Justice Manoj Jain upheld the order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal in which the petition of the accused IRS officer challenging the jurisdiction of the I
nternal Complaints Comittee was dismissed. The court said that there is no such provision in the Safety of Women at Workplace Act which limits its scope only to those cases where a female employee is sexually harassed by another employee working in the same office.,The court said that this act will also apply in cases where the accused employee is working in any other department/ office.