HC pulls up Centre for revealing survivor's identity in POSH handbook

New Delhi, The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the central government for disclosing the identity of a survivor of sexual harassment at her workplace in a POSH handbook published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma emphasised that even the Centre has to follow the law, which prohibits revealing the identity of the survivor of a sexual offence and makes it a punishable offence.

"How is the name of the victim disclosed in this? How can you do that? You are the government of India. You yourself are publishing revealing the name of the victim and you are circulating it. It is on your official website," Justice Sharma said.

Listing the matter for next hearing on Wednesday, Justice Sharma asked the central government lawyer to come back with the names of officials "responsible for this content".

The court was hearing a petition by the alleged perpetrator, who submitted that the matter has since been settled and therefore, sought directions for removal of his name from the handbook.

The petitioner's counsel submitted that a labour tribunal order arising from the alleged incident has been included in the ministry's POSH handbook as an anecdote, revealing the details of not only his identity but the woman's name as well.

The handbook is "everywhere and anywhere" on the internet, the lawyer added.

The Centre's counsel submitted that the handbook was published in November 2015 for educational purposes and the parties have settled the matter only recently.

"So will it reveal the name of the victim? Even a judgement cannot," Justice Sharma responded, while asserting that the woman's identity cannot be revealed despite the settlement.

"For educational purpose you don't need the victim's name, right? Even the judges write 'X'. There is a Supreme court judgement. There are directions of the high court. You can't disclose the name. Now it is punishable,"

The court also said judicial directions to protect a survivor's identity were in place even before 2015 and the authorities cannot be absolved of their responsibility to follow the law even if a party was acting on it now.

"Even if they are late in coming to the court, that will not absolve you of your responsibility of following the law. That's for everybody, even the government, right?" the court told the Centre's lawyer.

The petitioner also sought directions to Google for de-linking and de-indexing the content.

The petitioner's counsel stated that the alleged incident took place in 2001 and he even filed a defamation case in Delhi against the woman over the allegations.

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