Kolkata, Sept. 4 -- The Calcutta High Court has held that mere fear of facing sexual harassment in future cannot be treated as an incident of harassment or extend the time limit for filing a complaint under the POSH Act.
A division bench of Justice Madhuresh Prasad and Justice Prasenjit Biswas upheld the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal's decision quashing an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) report against a CID Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).
The case arose from a complaint by a contractual Data Entry Operator at the CID office. She alleged that the DSP had repeatedly touched and stroked her back and waist inappropriately between September 2021 and July 2022. She said she remained silent out of fear and because she had a small child at home. The ICC found the allegations true in April 2023 and recommended departmental action against the DSP.
The Tribunal later quashed the report, holding that the complaint was time-barred.
The state challenged the decision, arguing that the woman had seen the DSP in the office again in October 2022 and feared being posted under him again, making the January 2023 complaint timely.
The High Court rejected the argument, holding that the October incident involved only an apprehension of future harassment, not an actual incident of sexual harassment.
The court said the POSH Act requires a complaint to be filed within three months of the last incident, subject to a limited extension in prescribed circumstances.
As the complaint disclosed no harassment after July 2022, the January 2023 complaint was barred by limitation.
The bench found no error in the Tribunal's order and dismissed the state's appeal. Any interim order was also vacated.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.