TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (2) TMI 1747
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....h quickly are that the petitioner Mr. V. Natarajan in WP. No. 24290 of 2019 (henceforth referred as petitioner) was the Deputy Registrar of Trade Mark & GI, in Chennai and one Mrs. Rema Srinivasan Iyengar, Assistant Registrar (henceforth referred as complainant) preferred a complaint dated 02.12.2013 against him to the Registrar and Controller General of Trade Marks and GI and Patents and Design. The complaint basically was on the high handedness of the petitioner and the hurt to her self respect due to his arrogant behaviour. The Registrar and Controller General of Patents (2nd writ petitioner in WP. No. 10689 of 2019) on his part responded vide his letter dated 16.07.2014 constituting an Internal Committee on sexual harassment at work place. Subsequently, the complainant preferred another complaint dated 30.06.2015 in which she had narrated many incidents about the rude behaviour of Mr. V. Natarajan. In this complaint, which was not different from the earlier one, she had mentioned the word 'sexual harassment' repeatedly. Subsequently, the complainant also wrote a letter to the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women stating her apprehension that the Internal Committee w....
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....ed by the employer is against law due to the sole reason that the petitioner himself was the Head of the Department and therefore a complaint against him can be enquired into only by the Local Committee. The appeal against this order in RA.301/00015/2018 by the petitioner was dismissed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench. The Writ Petitions arise out of this orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench and also against the exparte order of the Local Committee. The aspects to be decided in these writs are 1) Whether the ICC and Local Committee can do the preliminary enquiry parallely? 2) Whether the findings of the Local Committee which is exparte need to be complied with? 3) Whether the original complaint in December 2013 had any allegation warranting the institution of formation of Committee for enquiry into sexual harassment of women in work place? 4) Whether the person who is charged was the employer in the strictest sense? 2. Mr. T. Mohan, learned counsel appearing for the complainant drew the attention of this Court to Section 2 (g) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and....
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....8 of the Act. However, it is found that an intimation was sent to the employer of the petitioner. At this juncture, it is relevant to extract Section 27 of the Tamil Nadu General Clauses Act, 1891, which reads that, "27. Meaning of service by post - Where any Central Act or Regulation made after the commencement of this Act authorises of requires any document to be served by post, where the expression "serve" or either of the expressions "give" or "send" or any other expression in used, then, unless a different intention appears, the service shall be deemed to be effected by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting by registered post, a letter containing the document, and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post." 3. At the outset, it may be observed that the original complaint dated 02.12.2013 was generic in nature. It elaborated upon how the petitioner was authoritative and also to some extent biased in his action and decisions. This is in sharp contrast to the written complaint dated 17.02.2016. The latter, though did not mention the date and sequence of events,....
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....ttee and that the finding of the Local Committee is a non speaking one, besides setting the petitioner exparte. 4. It is well settled that under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, the enquiry has to be a full fledged one, not a preliminary one. It is also mandatory for the person accused to be provided an opportunity to defend himself. Section 14 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, provides for penalising the complainant if the complaint is found to be false with malicious intent. Section 14 of the Act of was to check false complaint. At the same time, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 also brought in two provisions in order not to deter women from filing complaints. One was that their inability to prove a complaint will not render it false. Secondly, the malicious intent has to be specifically established before disciplinary action is recommended against the complainant. 5. The findings of the Local Committee in the light of the above provisions becomes invalid. The contention of the complainant ....