On Friday, a woman ex-intelligence officer of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), compulsorily retired after attempting suicide at Prime Minister's Officer in 2008, was awarded Rs. One lakh compensation by the Supreme Court finding that RAW delayed and improperly handled her sexual harassment complaint against then RAW chief and his deputy.

A bench comprising of Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari agreed with petitioner Nisha Priya Bhatia that her "complaints of sexual harassment (against then RAW secretary Ashok Chaturvedi) were met with incidents showcasing procedural ignorance and casual attitude of her seniors in the department."

Even though the bench agreed with findings of the delayed inquiry that sexual harassment charges were not made out, it said that the sanctity of following Vishaka guidelines, which mandated immediate setting up of an inquiry committee, is important to provide female employees a dignified atmosphere at workplace.

Justice Khanwilkar, in the judgement said:

"The petitioner had faced exceedingly insensitive and undignified circumstances due to improper handling of her complaint of sexual harassment. Regardless of the outcome of the inquiry into the stated complaint, the fundamental rights of the petitioner had been clearly impinged. Taking overall view of the circumstances, we consider this to be a fit case to award compensation to the petitioner for the stated violation of her right to life and dignity, quantified at Rs.one lakh."

It further added:

"Had it been a case of allegations in the stated complaint of the petitioner been substantiated in the duly conducted inquiry (which the petitioner had failed to do), it would have been still worse and accentuated violation of her fundamental rights warranting suitable (higher) compensation amount. Be that as it may, the compensation amount specified hereinabove be paid to the petitioner directly or be deposited in the Registry of this Court and in either case, within six weeks from today."

The SC also upheld the government's decision to compulsorily retire her in December 2009 on the ground that the intelligence officer was 'exposed' in public as she attracted a lot of publicity following her attempt to commit suicide in PMO in 2008.

She had been occupying her official accommodation till date having filed a number of petitions in the SC challenging almost every action of the government against her, SC allowed her three months to vacate her official accommodation while restraining authorities from imposing penal rent for overstay.

She had also demanded that the government must foot the bill for higher education of her daughter, which was to the tune of Rs 26 lakh.

The Apex Court said:

"Being a compulsorily retired government servant, the entitlement of the petitioner to post­retirement benefits must be confined to the provisions under the service rules applicable to her....no compensation can be given to the petitioner in reference to the cause stated in the writ petition under consideration."

The judgement has been delivered by Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari on 24-04-2020.

Read Judgement Here:

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