A woman research officer with the department of ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy (Ayush), under the health ministry, got relief from the Delhi high court which has directed the government to constitute a “proper” committee to inquire into her allegation of sexual harassment by a senior colleague.
The woman research officer had contended before the court that the sexual harassment committee appointed by the department earlier was headed by a person junior to the accused, which was against the law in this regard.
Aggrieved by the non-compliance of guidelines laid down by the Supreme court in this regard, she had also earlier approached the Central Administrative Tribunal which refused to direct the government to re-constitute the committee on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. The high court, however, said that it was not “powerless” to direct compliance of the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
“Under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution, it will be appropriate to direct the government to have secretary department of Ayush as chairperson of sexual harassment committee in place of the officer junior to the accused against whom allegation of sexual harassment has been made,” a division bench comprising Justices Mool Chand Garg and Anil Kumar said.
The court said the re-constituted committee will consider the woman officer’s complaint in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the topo court. The woman officer had alleged that “she was harassed as she was not succumbing to the evil designs of the director of the department of Ayush who was sexually harassing her.”
She contended that the chairperson of the earlier committee was advisor and other committee members were from Unani Council, which was under the disciplinary and administrative control of the accused and the members could not be expected to write against their director/head of the organisation.