Ensure ICC As Per POSH Act Exists In Armed Forces; Impart Gender Sensitive Awareness To Armed Personnel : Madras High Court To Centre

“And the Central Government is directed to ensure the proper existence of Internal Complaints Committee in the Armed Forces in accordance with the mandates of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 and to sensitise the armed personnel by imparting gender sensitive awareness training to achieve its objectives. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed,” the court directed.

The directions were issued by Justice RN Manjula after noting that the woman officer had resorted to filing a police complaint after being unsatisfied with the investigation carried out by the Air Force Authorities and after facing humiliation in the services and being threatened to withdraw the complaint.

The court lamented that it was difficult to comprehend how a woman of armed forces was not comfortable to take up her grievance and ended up filing a police complaint.

“In this era of awareness and sensitivity, it is difficult to comprehend that a victim of a sexual offence in the Armed Forces was not comfortable enough to take up her grievance and she was looked down and pressured for having got the courage to report. If the women of the armed forces should not have courage to fight such violence, who else can have?” the court observed.

In the present case, the court was informed that the woman officer, who was a Flight Lieutenant in the Air Force was raped by her male colleague, who was also a Flight Lieutenant, while undergoing a Professional Knowledge Course for seven weeks at the Air Force Administration College. The woman officer gave a complaint to her officers and a Court of Inquiry was formed and started inquiring.

However, it was further informed that being unsatisfied with the manner in which the matter was being handled, the woman officer gave a police complaint based on which an FIR was registered at the All Woman Police Station Central, Coimbatore. The police started the investigation and arrested the accused from the Air Force camp.

When the accused was produced before the Magistrate, the Air Force Authorities placed a request for seeking his custody and the same was ordered. Against this, a revision was filed by the police before the Sessions Court which modified the order and permitted the investigation to be done by both the police and the Air Force authorities. Thus, the present case was filed by the police against the order allowing his custody to the air force.

The court noted that in the present case, the Air Force authority had assumed jurisdiction even when the circumstances around the victim was not favourable. This, according to the court, would not be complete justice as there was a possibility that the victim would be subjected to victimisation.

“If an appropriate authority under the Act continues to handle the offences like rape against the persons subject to the Act by opting to assume jurisdiction under the Court Martial, even when the situations and events surrounding the victim are not hunky-dory, the victim will be vulnerable to secondary victimisation. Even if the accused is convicted at the end of the trial that cannot be called as a complete justice and there is a possibility for such victimisation to continue even after the conviction of the accused,” the court observed.

The court also added that though there was a remedy available for making complaints against superior officers to the Central Government or that of a re-trial, the same was not an immediate answer. The court added that this issue could only be addressed by addressing the gap in such special legislation and by ensuring the compliance of mandate of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 in the armed forces.

“The remedy available to all aggrieved Officers under Section 27 of the Act by making complaints against their superiors to the Central Government or a remedy of re-trial at the discretion of the Central Government under Section 126, cannot be an immediate answer to the most demanding post reporting situations of the victims of sexual offences. This hard-core reality can only be remedied through legislative measures by properly addressing the gap in such special legislation and by ensuring the compliance of mandates of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 in the Armed Forces and by spreading awareness,” the court observed.

Thus, the court ordered the Central Government to ensure proper compliance of the legislature.

Case Title: State v Commandant, Air Force Administrative College

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 206

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.A.Gopinath, Government Advocate (Crl.Side)

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.R.Rajesh Vivekananthan