Eve-teasing of women amounts to violation of rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 15 of the Constitution

Lisa Coutinho | Pravin Gandhi College of Law | 17th March 2020

The Deputy Inspector General of Police & Anr. v. S. Samuthiram Civil Appeal No. 8513 of 2012

Facts of the case:

The Respondent, police personnel by designation, was on duty at the Armed Reserve and was deputed for Courtallam season Bandobust duty on 9.7.1999. At 11 pm he visited the Tenkasi bus stand in a drunken state and misbehaved and eve-teased a married lady who was waiting along with her husband to board a bus. The respondent approached the lady with dubious intention, threatened both husband and wife that he would book a case against the husband unless the lady accompanied him, and disclosed his identity as a policeman. In a panicked state, the husband and wife complained to two head constables of Tenkasi Police Station on the opposite side of the bus stand. The constables rushed to the spot and arrested the respondent. A complaint was then registered against the respondent under section 509 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 4 of the Eve-teasing Act. He was further suspended and departmental proceedings were initiated against him under Rule 3(b) of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 1955. The Superintendent of Police, after conducting a detailed enquiry, dismissed the respondent from service. Aggrieved by this order, the respondent filed an O.A. before the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal. While the O.A. was pending, the Judicial Magistrate acquitted the respondent of all the charges. When the judgement was brought to the notice of the Tribunal, it took the view that no reliance could be placed on the judgement of the criminal court as the delinquent was not proceeded within the departmental proceedings. The order was thus challenged by the respondent in the form of a writ petition before the High Court of Madras. The Court allowed the writ petition and set aside the impugned order dismissing him from service.  Aggrieved by the judgement, the State filed an appeal through the Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Supreme Court.

Issues raised:

1. When the departmental enquiry has been concluded resulting in dismissal of the delinquent from service, will the subsequent finding recorded by the Criminal court acquitting the delinquent have any effect on the departmental proceedings?
2. Whether the respondent was honourably acquitted, and whether he is entitled to claim reinstatement.

Judgement:

The Court held that the mere acquittal of an employee by a criminal court has no impact on the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Department. It further held that mere acquittal does not entitle an employee to reinstatement in service. It held that the acquittal has to be honourable. It stated that if an employee is honourably acquitted by a criminal court, no right is conferred on the employee to claim any benefit including reinstatement because the standard of proof required for holding a person guilty by a criminal court and the enquiry conducted by way of disciplinary proceeding is entirely different. The issue whether an employee has to be reinstated in service or not depends upon the question whether the service rules contain any provision for reinstatement. Thus, the Apex Court took the view that the High Court was not justified in setting aside the punishment imposed in the departmental proceedings as against the respondent, in its limited jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court stated that Sexual harassment like eve-teasing of women amounts to violation of the rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 15 of the Constitution.

During this case the Parliament was working on the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010. Through this case, it various directions which included deputation of plain clothed female police officers to monitor and supervise incidents of eve-teasing, instalment of CCTV to catch the offender, prevention of eve-teasing and reporting any such incidents at the nearest police station, exhibiting boards cautioning acts of eve-teasing and taking effective and proper measures to curb incidents of eve-teasing.