'false sexual harassment report can cost women job'

Women making false complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace stand to lose their jobs, a new rule has stipulated, putting in a safeguard against potential misuse of the law.

Updated on: Dec 14, 2013, 02:33:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Women making false complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace stand to lose their jobs, a new rule has stipulated, putting in a safeguard against potential misuse of the law.

The rule, notified this week, for the sexual harassment at workplace law becomes applicable from Monday.

It has also brought in gender neutrality into the law, as men held guilty of sexual harassment at the workplace also face losing their jobs.

The punishment in earlier laws governing workplace sexual harassment was a grey area.

Under the new rule, if a complaints committee constituted by an employer finds the allegation of sexual harassment to be malicious or based on forged papers, it can recommend action including termination of service against the complainant.

The complaints committee, however, can recommend such action against the complainant only if it malicious intent is proven.

"Not able to substantiate the allegations in the inquiry cannot be the ground for initiating action against the woman complaining," a women and child development ministry official said.

The punishments prescribed by the ministry include written apology, reprimand, withholding of promotion or pay rise, and termination of services — if found guilty of harassment or filing false complaint.

The penalty provision in a way gives a breather to Tehelka's former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury who faced a wave of criticism for having sought a written apology from the magazine's founder, Tarun Tejpal, after a colleague accused him of sexual harassment.

The new rule also provides for an appeal against the verdict of a complaints committee under the Industrial Employment (Standing Order) Act, 1946. The industrial law empowers the government to appoint an appellate authority for private institutions.

Disclosure of any information related to a complainant, witnesses or proceedings of a complaints committee has been made an offence punishable with a fine of Rs 5,000.

Only the committee's final decision can be disclosed, thereby imposing additional restrictions on seeking information under Right To Information law.

The sexual harassment act clearly says information related to inquiry cannot be provided under the RTI. This is the third area - after the National Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill and National Sports Development Bill - where specific restrictions have been imposed on the RTI.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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