A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheswari said this in its judgment upholding the compulsory retirement of former R&AW officer Nisha Priya Bhatia on the ground of “exposure”. A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheswari said this in its judgment upholding the compulsory retirement of former R&AW officer Nisha Priya Bhatia on the ground of “exposure”.

The law on sexual harassment “predicates that a non­hostile working environment is the basic limb of a dignified employment” and “the approach of law” in such matters “is not confined to cases of actual commission of acts of harassment, but also covers situations wherein the woman employee is subjected to prejudice, hostility, discriminatory attitude and humiliation in day to day functioning at the workplace”, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheswari said this in its judgment upholding the compulsory retirement of former R&AW officer Nisha Priya Bhatia on the ground of “exposure”.

The bench also upheld the constitutional validity of the relevant provision in the Research and Analysis Wing (Recruitment, Cadre and Services) Rules, 1975, under which Bhatia was given compulsory retirement.

The court awarded her compensation of Rs 1 lakh, finding procedural errors in the setting up of the committee under Vishakha guidelines to enquire into her complaint of sexual harassment against two colleagues.

The Central Administrative Tribunal quashed the compulsory retirement order in March 2010 but the Delhi High Court reversed this in January 2019.

Bhatia, who joined R&AW in February 1988, had levelled sexual harassment complaints against colleagues Ashok Chaturvedi and Sunil Uke. On her complaint in August 2007, a committee was set up after three months.

But it had to be reconstituted later as there was no “third party as a representative of an NGO or other body who is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment”. Despite this, Bhatia did not participate in the proceedings, saying it had no mandate to proceed against Chaturvedi.

The Complaints Committee, in its ex­parte report, concluded that no allegations of sexual harassment could be proved against Uke.

After this, there was a widely reported incident at the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009 when she reportedly attempted to commit suicide there.

Following this, another committee was constituted by the then PM to look into complaints against Chaturvedi. This committee concluded that no case as alleged was made out on the basis of evidence on record.

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