New Delhi, The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the central government for disclosing the identity of a survivor of sexual harassment at her workplace in a POSH handbook published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma emphasised that even the Centre has to follow the law, which prohibits revealing the identity of the survivor of a sexual offence and makes it a punishable offence.
Even a judgement cannot,” Justice Sharma responded, while asserting that the woman’s identity cannot be revealed despite the settlement. “How is the name of the victim disclosed in this? How can you do that? You are the government of India. You yourself are publishing revealing the name of the victim and you are circulating it. “So will it reveal the name of the victim? “For educational purpose you don’t need the victim’s name, right? Even the judges write ‘X’. There is a Supreme court judgement. There are directions of the high court. You can’t disclose the name.
Now it is punishable,” The court also said judicial directions to protect a survivor’s identity were in place even before 2015 and the authorities cannot be absolved of their responsibility to follow the law even if a party was acting on it now. The court was hearing a petition by the alleged perpetrator, who submitted that the matter has since been settled and therefore, sought directions for removal of his name from the handbook.
It is on your official website,” Justice Sharma said. Listing the matter for next hearing on Wednesday, Justice Sharma asked the central government lawyer to come back with the names of officials “responsible for this content”.
