Mere remark, song about woman's hair not sexual harassment: Bombay HC

Commenting on and singing a song about a woman colleague's hair in itself does not amount to sexual harassment at the workplace, Bombay High Court has said, granting relief to a senior executive of a private bank.

Justice Sandeep Marne in his order of 18 March said even if the allegations against the petitioner were taken to be true, a "concrete inference" about sexual harassment cannot be drawn from them.

Vinod Kachave, an associate regional manager with HDFC Bank in Pune, had challenged a July 2024 order passed by the industrial court dismissing his appeal against a report submitted by the bank's Internal Complaints Committee holding him guilty of misconduct under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act).

Following the committee's report, Kachave was demoted to deputy regional manager. As per the woman complainant, the petitioner passed a comment on her hair, and also sang a song referring to her hair. In another instance, the complaint said, he allegedly passed a remark about a male colleague's private parts in the presence of other women colleagues.

The high court said the bank's complaints committee did not consider whether the alleged conduct of the petitioner constituted sexual harassment.

"Even if the allegations regarding the incident are accepted as proved, it becomes difficult to hold that the petitioner has committed any act of sexual harassment," the court held.

The findings of the industrial court were "clearly perverse" as it completely ignored the fact that even if the allegations were taken as proved, "no case of sexual harassment of the complainant was made out".

The high court set aside the bank's internal report of September 2022 as well as the Pune industrial court's order. Kachave's lawyer Sana Raees Khan argued before the high court that the alleged incidents did not fall under the purview of the POSH Act.

Kachave had only remarked to the complainant that she must be using a "JCB to manage her hair", the lawyer said. As for the other incident, Khan said the complainant was not even present when the alleged remark was made. The lawyer also pointed out that the complaint of sexual harassment was made only after the complainant tendered her resignation.

The high court said considering the nature of the comment allegedly made by Kachave, it was difficult to believe that the intent was to cause sexual harassment.

"She herself never perceived the comment as sexual harassment when it was made," the HC observed, noting that the comment was made in June 2022. Later, the petitioner and the complainant had exchanged messages on WhatsApp where he motivated her to work and she expressed gratitude, the court said.

This exchange of messages after the occurrence of the alleged incident would cast serious doubt as to whether the complainant was really offended by his conduct, the judge said.

As for the second incident, the court said the complainant was not present when it allegedly took place, and the remark was not directed at her, hence it was difficult to accept that it caused any sexual harassment to her.