Sexual harassment complainants treated insensitively, says HC

THE Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court observed that women in workplaces or girls in educational institutions who report instances of sexual harassment were either treated without due sensitivity or subject to secondary victimisation.

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Justice RN Manjula said colleagues or peers who supported the complainants were being treated with a vengeance by insensitive or perverse superiors. The perpetrator and superiors join hands and commit acts amounting to secondary sexual harassment, which defeats the objectives of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2023. It would also be counter-productive to the interest of the working class, irrespective of their sex, and a lack of harmony between male and female workers would spoil work environment, the judge said.