Sexual harassment complaint of woman police officer transferred from TN to Telangana by HC

The Madras High Court on Wednesday transferred to Telangana a sexual harassment complaint lodged by a senior woman police officer against her superior officer of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC).

A bench comprising justices Vineet Kothari and C V Karthikeyan passed the interim order on the appeals filed by Dr S Murugan, Joint Director, DVAC, Chennai against the order passed by a single judge on February 14, 2019.

He had given the go ahead for a probe by an Internal Complaints Committee and the CB-CID which had registered an FIR on the woman officer's complaint.

The bench, which went through submissions of Advocate General Vijay Narayan and the woman officer's lawyer, said it felt that to ensure fair, independent and unbiased probe and looking into the nature of charges, the ICC enquiry under the provisions of the 'Sexual Harassment of Woman at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013', as well as the probe into the FIR should be undertaken in another neighbouring state.

 

Stating that it was using its extraordinary powers under Article 226 of the Constitution, including the powers under Article 226(2), the bench directed that all proceedings in the case be transferred to the state of Telangana at Hyderabad.

The bench also directed Telangana's Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to take necessary steps to constitute a separate ICC at Hyderabad as per the provisions of the Act, headed by a senior woman officer to undertake the enquiry.

The investigation of the FIR should be done by a senior and independent official of the police department of Telangana state, the bench said.

It directed that the ICC report and that of the investigation of the FIR be sent back to the High Court within a period of six months from Wednesday.

Making it clear that the transfer of the case to Telangana shall in no way be treated as any adverse expression by the high court on the image of the authorities of the state of Tamil Nadu, the bench adjourned the matter to be listed after receipt of the reports from Telangana.