SOHAIL MALIK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) If a woman employee in one department of the Government of India is sexually harassed by an employee of another department, would she, or would she not, be entitled to invoke the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 ('the SHW Act', hereinafter)? The petitioner would seek to submit that the answer has necessarily to be in the negative. In other words, according to the petitioner, one has to be sexually harassed by a colleague in one's own department, for the SHW Act to apply.

(2.) This writ petition, directed against judgment dtd. 23/6/2023 passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi ('the learned Tribunal') in OA 1838/2023, requires the Court to address this issue, which, the petitioner submits, is thus far res integra. Facts

(3.) The present proceedings emanate from a complaint addressed by an officer in the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer and Public Distribution, alleging that the petitioner, who is a 2010 Batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), had sexually harassed her. The complaint was presented by the complainant before the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) ' constituted under Sec. 9 of the SHW Act in the wake of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997) 7 SCC 323 ' of her department/workplace i.e. the Department of Food and Public Distribution.