Sexual Harassment In Sports: Madras High Court Directs State To Take Measures To Protect Athletes, Take Prompt Action Against Perpetrators

Justice KK Ramakrishnan noted that as per a report published by the Ungender titled 'Sexual Harassment in Sports in India', sexual harassment was at an all-time high. The court noted that perpetrators of such crimes had to be suitably dealt with. Noting that a prompt law to deal with such issues was required, the court issued directions to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu to address the issue of protection of women participants in sports from sexual harassment in the interest of sports education and transparent participation of women in sports.

"This Court feels to act swiftly and impose tough punishment on the person who is found guilty of sexually harassing sport women. Perpetrator of the said crimes are also to be suitably punished and to take prompt action new form of measurement in the form of legislature is timely required. Therefore, this Court issues direction to the Chief Secretary Government of Tamilnadu, to address the issue of protection of women participants in sports from sexual harassment in the interest of the sports Education and transparent participation of women in sport within a period of six months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order," the court said.

The court also directed the State Government to permit either parents or guardians of the girl participating in state competition to accompany them at state cost to prevent harassment.

“Therefore, in the interest of justice and also to achieve the social justice, this Court issues direction to the State Government to accommodate either parents or guardian of the girl at the state cost during sports competition in order to avoid sexual harassment at the hands of coaches and organizers of competition”, the court directed.

The court noted that women athletes were often subjected to an open invitation for sexual intercourse, stroking, squeezing, groping, offensive comments, offensive texts and e-mails, rape and attempt to rape. In many cases, the court noted that the athletes were victimised in the form of termination of contract on grounds of indiscipline, withdrawal of tasks or sports-related sanctions transfer, isolation, altering job responsibility etc. The court noted that such instances would affect the physical and psychological health of the athlete and would also affect their performance.

The court made the observations in an appeal filed by a Physical Education Teacher who was convicted under Section 10 read with Section 9(f) of the POCSO Act and Section 363 of the IPC for sexually assaulting a 12th-standard student whom he had accompanied to a state level Kabbadi tournament.

The prosecution case was that after taking the victim to Rajapalayam, the appellant (teacher) changed his plans and instead of staying at his relatives' house as decided prior, he took the victim to a lodge. In the lodge, the appellant committed sexual assault upon the victim and invited her to share a bed with him. The victim girl took a cell phone and ran to the restroom where she locked herself and called one of her relatives who informed the police. The police arrived at the lodge after which the victim came out of the restroom. A case was thus registered and the appellant was convicted after trial.

During the appeal, it was contended that Section 9(f) of the POCSO is not made out as the alleged incident did not happen in the institution but in a lodge. The court however rejected this contention and observed that the word “institution” under the section should not be given a restrictive meaning. The court noted that in the present case, the victim and the appellant had a student-teacher relationship and the victim had accompanied the appellant only because he was her teacher. Thus, the court noted that Section 9(f) applied to the present case.

The appellant also argued that the documents relied upon by the prosecution were not enough to prove the age of the victim. The court however noted that the prosecution had produced the SSLC certificate of the victim which was sufficient proof of the age of the victim. The court also noted that the same was corroborated by the Headmaster of the school.

The court also noted that the appellant's decision to not stay at his relatives' house and instead choose to stay at the lodge was a strong circumstance to prove his guilt of mind for committing sexual assault on the victim girl. Though the appellant raised other points also, the court rejected all the contentions.

The court noted that in the present case, the victim's father had already died and her mother was brought up in a family belonging to the Scheduled caste community. The court observed that the appellant, who was the teacher was expected to have high morality and have a parental approach towards the child had instead completely destroyed the trust by committing the sexual assault.

The court noted that after the incident, the girl had discontinued her education and could not even participate in the state team selection. Noting that the career of the child had to come to an end due to the humiliation at the hands of the appellant, the court deemed it fit to enhance the compensation amount from Rs. 50,000 to Rs.5,00,000.

The court also dismissed the appeal and directed the victim compensation authority to give enhanced compensation to the victim within 4 weeks of the order.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.V.Kathirvelu, Senior Counsel for Mr.K.Prabhu

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.M.Muthumanikkam Government Advocate (Crl. Side)

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 338

Case Title: Tamil Selvan v State

Case No: Crl.A(MD)No.316 of 2022