Calling a woman bitch is sexual harassment

CHENNAI: Yelling at a woman by using the term ‘bitch’ or describing her as a ‘bitch’ to third parties will also amount to sexual harassment, the Madras High Court has ruled.Justice K Chandru gave the ruling recently, while disposing of the miscellaneous petitions from Baskaran (name changed), whose wife was allegedly sexually harassed by Tharmen Fernandez, a suspended teacher of Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Egmore, seeking certain clarifications on the orders passed by the judge on April 7 last year and to extend the time for holding enquiry against the teacher.While passing orders on a petition levelling various sexual harassment charges from students and their parents against Fernandez, the court on April 7 had directed the school management to suspend him and appoint a retired District Judge to hold an enquiry in respect of the disciplinary action to be taken against him. The judge observed that a reading of the complaints from the teachers and statements given by them to the committee clearly showed that the allegations came within the definition of the term ‘sexual harassment’ made in Vishaka’s case.In this case, the Supreme Court had held that ‘sexually coloured remarks and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature,’ will also come under sexual harassment.The judge also held that third parties or outsiders could also give deposition before the special enquiry committee against the accused person, as per the guidelines prescribed in the Vishaka’s case.Vishaka’s guidelines not only dealt with the women employees, but also the sexual harassment faced by third parties or outsiders and the employer’s obligation to take action, the judge said.The judge ordered the constitution of a fresh special enquiry committee with the members familiar with the Vishaka’s case guidelines. The statement of petitioner’s wife must also be examined even though she might be a third party and there could not be any restriction in the number of parents/students who were willing to depose before the enquiry officer including the representatives of the Parents’ Teachers’ Association, the judge added.