All unwelcome contact can’t be harassment: HC

all physical contact cannot be termed as sexual harassment and only a physical contact or advances which are in the nature of an ‘unwelcome sexually determined behaviour’ would amount to sexual harassment JUSTICE VIBHU BAKHRU,

Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Not all unwelcome physical contact can be categorised as sexual harassment, unless it is in the nature of an “unwelcome sexually determined behaviour”, the Delhi High Court has ruled.

The high court’s observation came while dismissing the appeal by an employee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who had accused one of her colleagues of sexual harassment.

The woman had alleged that while she was working at the laboratory, the accused stormed inside and stopped the machine and snatched the samples from her. He then pushed her out of the laboratory and locked it.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru, however, said that “…all physical contact cannot be termed as sexual harassment and only a physical contact or advances which are in the nature of an ‘unwelcome sexually determined behaviour’ would amount to sexual harassment”.

The court upheld the decision of the Complaint Committee and Disciplinary Authority exonerating the man of the charges of sexual harassment levelled by the woman.

Although t he Complaint Committee had accepted that there was evidence to show that the accused had held the arm of the woman, it had concluded that the same was not a sexually determined behaviour but was in the nature of the altercation.

The Complaint Committee concluded that the man might have held the woman’s arm and thrown the material in her hand in a fit of anger, although, the said incident may be a case of harassment and is deplorable, the same would not qualify as a sexual harassment.

The Disciplinary Authority, which was set up subsequently, also accepted the committee’s report.

“This court does not find that the said conclusion to be perverse or without application of mind as was contended on behalf of the petitioner,” the judge said.

“Undoubtedly, physical contact or advances would constitute sexual harassment provided such physical contact is a part of the sexually determined behaviour. Such physical contact must be in the context of a behaviour which is sexually oriented,” the judge said.

“Similarly, a physical contact which has no undertone of a sexual nature and is not occasioned by the gender of the complainant may not necessarily amount to sexual harassment,” he said.