Workplace harassment: Lady moves SC, Court says 'attempt to transform dispute into criminal matter'

The Supreme Court dismissed a workplace harassment case filed by a female employee against her colleagues, ruling that the accusations were given a criminal angle because of employment issues in its January 24 verdict. Further, the Court concluded that the case was manipulated to pressure the accused into a settlement.

The court handed out this ruling when a petitioner, a female employee who worked as a Technical System Analyst at a private firm, claimed she had been forced to resign under threat of dismissal, had her belongings confiscated, and experienced physical and verbal harassment.

The complaint listed offences under multiple sections including voluntary hurt, insult to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation, and attempt to commit an offence.

Challenging the Karnataka High Court's refusal to quash the criminal proceedings, the accused appealed to the Supreme Court where a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra evaluated the allegations, finding them insufficient to constitute the mentioned offences. Their examination revealed that the charges lacked essential facts to support the claims.

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The Court highlighted that the proceedings were initiated with malicious intentions to cause harm or coerce a settlement. The verdict stated that the accusations were an “attempt to reclassify the nature of the proceedings from non-cognizable to cognizable or to transform a civil dispute into a criminal matter, potentially aimed at pressurizing the appellants into settling the dispute with the complainant.”

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the allegations laid out the essential ingredients of the criminal offences, including harassment, intimidation, and unlawful seizure of intellectual property insisted that the female employee was pressured to resign and faced physical assault.

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However, the Supreme Court found that these claims were improbable and did not justify criminal proceedings, quashing the criminal case against the accused. This case was a milestone ruling in ensuring that criminal law is not misused for civil issues.