DVAC sexual harassment case: Court stays probe by CB-CID, internal panel

A division bench comprising Justices KK Sasidharan and P D Audikesavalu granted status quo on an appeal that Murugan filed. But it refused to restrain the media, holding that media cannot be prevented from publishing open court proceedings. The case was then posted to February 27 for further hearing.

With this, the single judge’s order allowing two separate proceedings – one criminal and the other under the Sexual Harassment Act – would be kept on hold until further orders.

In his order on February 14, Justice S M Subramaniam had confirmed the freshly constituted of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and also held that these proceedings can continue parallel with the criminal action, and directed the CB-CID to submit the report within two weeks.

He had also directed the chief secretary to initiate action against the officer under the service rules.

When the plea came up for hearing, senior counsel ARL Sundaresan appearing for Murugan submitted that ICC chairperson Srilakshmi Prasad came to Murugan’s office and insisted his cooperation for an inquiry. He contended that the ICC chairperson cannot hold such inquiries without the committee members, and faulted the chairperson for holding a meeting at at Murugan’s office contrary to the condition that such probes should be held at a designated meeting place.

The woman IPS officer had alleged in her complaint last August that the officer had called her numerous times after office hours and commented on her personal and physical attributes. She also alleged that he forcefully hugged her, and took her photos despite her objections.

She moved the court seeking to transfer the accused officer to any non-sensitive post outside DVAC pending inquiry into her complaint.

On the other hand, Murugan challenged the constitution of ICC and the CBCID probe against him, stating that the complaint for registration of the FIR was forwarded by the ICC.

While upholding both the proceedings against Murugan, the single judge had also directed the State to install CCTV camera in his chamber while recommending it for offices of all State officials to address the issue of sexual harassment at workplaces.