Nafr High Court
Case Details
1 2025:CGHC:19320 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPS No. 2151 of 2019 Shoeb Qazi S/o Shri G.A. Qazi Aged About 33 Years Working As Assistant Labour Commissioner, Near Collectorate Office, Kutcheri Chowk, Raipur, Disrtict- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. versus ... Petitioner 1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Principal Secretary, Department Of Labour, Mahanadi Bhawan, Mantralya, Atal Nagar, District- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. 2 - Labour Commissioner Department Of Labour, 2nd Floor, Indrawati Bhawan, Atal Nagar, District- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. 3 - Internal Complaint Committee Headed By Smt. Savita Mishra (Deputy Labour Commissioner), Office Of The Labour Commissioner, Indrawati Bhawan, Atal Nagar, District- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. 4 - Smt. Priya Namdev Accountant (Placement), Chuna Bhatti, Raman Mandir Ward No.21, Raipur, Disrtict- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. 5 - District Level Committee For Redressal Of Sexual Harassment Through Secretary-Cum-District-Program Officer, Women And Child Welfare Department Raipur, Disrtict- Raipur, Chhattisgarh. ... Respondents For Petitioner
Legal Reasoning
: Mr. Anup Majumdar and Mr. Saket Pandey, For Respondents 1 to 3 & 5/State : Mr. Santosh Soni, Govt. Advocate For Respondent No.4 : None present, though served Advocates (Hon’ble Shri Justice Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi) Order on Board 29/04/2025 BINI PRADEEP Digitally signed by BINI PRADEEP Date: 2025.05.02 15:36:25 +0530 2 1. This petition has been preferred by the petitioner under Article 226 of the constitution of India, challenging Order dated 04.01.2019 (Annexure-P/1) passed by ‘Internal Complaints Committee’ constituted to prevent sexual harassment to women at work place, whereby the petitioner has been held guilty under Sections 11 & 13(3)(i)(ii) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (for short ‘the Act, 2013) and recommendation was made by the said Committee to punish the petitioner under above two sections of the Act, 2013 and also compensate the complainant under Section 15(a)(b)(d)(e) of the Act, 2013 for the said offence. 2. Facts of the case, as projected by the petitioner in nutshell are that, on the date of incident, i.e. on 12.7.2018 & 19.7.2018, the petitioner was posted as Assistant Labour Commissioner in the Office of Assistant Labour Commissioner, Raipur and respondent No.4/complainant was posted as Accountant through placement agency, in that office. On 19.7.2018, respondent No.4/complainant made complaint against the petitioner and other persons in the Police Station Modhapara, Raipur, alleging therein that she has been sexually harassed by the petitioner and other persons on various counts. She also made complaint on 20.7.2018 to various other officials i.e. Labour Commissioner, Collector Raipur etc. The police sent copy of the complainant to the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur. In pursuance of that communication, Labour Commissioner, Raipur sent the complaint to Internal Complaint Committee, constituted vide Annexure-R/2 in the Office of Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur to enquire the matter. After enquiry the petitioner has been held guilty by that Internal Complaints Committee vide order Annexure-P/1 dated 04.01.2019. Further pleading of the petitioner is that on one hand, he was held guilty vide 3 impugned Order dated 04.01.2019 (Annexure-P/1) and on the other hand, further enquiry was being conducted by the ‘Local Committee’ constituted under Section 6 of the Act, 2013, in which notices were sent to the complainant as well as the petitioner vide Annexure-P/21 dated 27.11.2018 and Annexure-P/32 dated 13.02.2019. By filing instant petition, the petitioner has challenged impugned Order dated 04.01.2019 (Annexure-P/1) as well as simultaneous proceedings initiated against him by the Local Committee, Raipur, constituted under Section 6 of the Act, 2013, seeking following relief:- i. To kindly quash the impugned Order dated 04.01.2019 passed by the respondent No.3 [Annexure P-1]. ii. To enquiry initiated by District Level Sexual redressal committee Women and Child Development Department vide letter dated 13.02.2019 [Annexure P-32] may kindly be set aside be quashed. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that at the time of the alleged incident, the petitioner was posted as Assistant Labour Commissioner in the office of Assistant Labour Commissioner, Raipur, as such he was the head of his establishment. Even he had also constituted ‘Internal Complaints Committee’ in his own office on 16.5.2018 (Annexure-P/12) under Section 4 of the Act, 2013. He further submits that ‘Office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Raipur’ is completely distinct establishment from the ‘Office of Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur’, as office of the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner is situated at Indrawati Bhawan, Atal Nagar, Nava Raipur, and for that office, vide Order (Annexure-R/2) dated 07.8.2018 issued by Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur, ‘Internal Complaints Committee’ was constituted, which is the competent authority to enquire the complaints which was made by the employee of that office. The committee 4 constituted on 07.8.2018 vide Annexure-R/2 was not competent to enquire the complaint of respondent No.4/ complainant, rather since the complaint was made against the petitioner himself, who was head of his own office, therefore, ‘Local Committee’ constituted by the District Officer under Section 6 of the Act, 2013 was competent committee to enquire the complaint made by respondent No.4. Therefore, learned counsel submits that since the Internal Complaints Committee of the office of the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur was not competent to enquire the complaint made by respondent No.4 against the petitioner, as such, Order impugned dated 04.1.02019 (Annexure-P/1) passed by Internal Complaints Committee of the Office of the Labour Commissioner is void ab-initio, hence, it is prayed that impugned Order (Annexure-P/1) may be set aside/quashed as that proceedings are completely against the provisions fo the Act, 2013. 4. The State has filed its reply stating inter alia that since the complaint was made to the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur, therefore, he directed the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Raipur to constitute committee to enquire the complaint made by respondent No.4 against the petitioner and pursuant to that, vide Order dated 07.8.2018 (Annexure-R/2), the Internal Complaints Committee was constituted headed by Smt. Savita Mishra and 04 other members. Subsequently, Smt. Krishna Sahu was also nominated as Member of the Committee vide Order dated 27.9.2018 passed by the Officer of the Labour Commissioner, Raipur. The committee sent various notices to the petitioner, despite that he did not enter his appearance and not participated in the enquiry proceedings, therefore, after due enquiry, the Internal Complaints Committee of the Office of Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur passed impugned order dated 04.01.2019 (Annexure- P/1) holding guilty to the petitioner. It also recommended to penalize the 5 petitioner and further to compensate the complainant. Learned counsel for the State referring to its reply would submit that impugned order is appealable under Section 18 of the Act, 2013, but the petitioner without availing such remedy has challenged the same by filing instant writ petition. Therefore, he prayed that, this petition is liable to be dismissed. 5. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record with utmost circumspection. 6. Undisputedly, at the time of alleged incident, the petitioner was posted as Assistant Labour Commissioner in the Office of Assistant Labour Commissioner, Raipur and respondent No.4/complainant was posted in that office as Accountant (Placement). 7. Relevant provisions of Section 2(g), Section 4, Section 5 and Section 6 of the Act ,2013 reads thus:- Section 2(g) defines “Employer”, which reads thus:- (g) (i) “employer” means- in relation to any department, organisation, undertaking, establishment, enterprise, institution, office, branch or unit of the appropriate Government or a local authority, the head of that department, organisation, undertaking, establishment, enterprise, institution, office, branch or unit or such other officer as the appropriate government or the local authority, as the case may be, may by an order specify in this behalf ; (ii) in any workplace not covered under sub-clause (i), any person responsible for the management, supervision and control of the workplace. Explanation.- For the purposes of this sub-clause “management” includes the person or board or committee responsible for formulation and administration of policies for such organiszation; (iii) in relation to workplace covered under sub-clauses (i) and (ii), the person discharging contractual obligation with respect to his or her employees; (iv) in relation to a dwelling place or house, a person or a 6 household who employs or benefits from the employment of domestic worker, irrespective of the number, time period or type of such worker employed, or the nature of the employment or activities performed by the domestic worker; 4. Constitution of Internal Complaints Committee.- (1) Every employee of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute a Committee to be known as the “Internal Complaints Committee”: Provided that where the offices or administrative units of the workplace are located at different places or divisional or sub- divisional level, the Internal Committee shall be constituted at all administrative units or offices. (2) XXX XXX XXX 5. Notification of District Officer.- The appropriate Government may notify a District Magistrate or Additional District Magistrate or the Collector or Deputy Collector as a District Officer for every District to exercise powers or discharge functions under this Act. 6. (1) Constitution and jurisdiction of Local Committee.- Every District Officer shall constitute in the district concerned, a committee to be known as the Local Committee to receive complaints of sexual harassment from establishment where the Internal Committee has not been constituted due to having less than ten workers or if the complaint is against the employer himself. (2) The District Officer shall designate one nodal officer in every block, taluka and tehsil in rural or tribal area and ward or municipality in the urban area, to receive complaints and forward the same to the concerned Local Committee within a period of seven days. (3) The jurisdiction of the Local Committee shall extend to the areas of the district where it is constituted . 8. Perusal of the aforesaid provisions shows that every employer of a workplace, either it be establishment, administrative unit or divisional or sub divisional level, the Internal Complaints Committee has to be constituted at every administrative unit or establishment or office. The petitioner was posted 7 as Assistant Labour Commissioner, Raipur, thus, he was head of his own district establishment, therefore, vide Annexure-P/12 dated 16.5.2018, he himself had constituted Internal Complaints Committee to enquire complaint pertaining to the Act, 2013 made by the employ of his office. 9. Section 6 of the Act, 2013 further contemplates that, in any office, if less than 10 persons are working or if the complaint is against the employer himself, then the complaint made under the Act, 2013 shall be enquired by the ‘Local Committee’ constituted by every District Officer (District Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate, Deputy Collector etc.) 10. In the instant case, since the petitioner himself was the head of his district establishment/office, as such he was employer as per Section 2(g) of the Act, 2013 and respondent No.4/complainant was the employee of his office, therefore, complaint made by respondent No.4 could be enquired by the Local Committee constituted under Section 6 of the Act, 2013 and not by the Internal Complaints Committee constituted under Section 4 of the Act, 2013 for the Office of the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur. Thus, it is clear that Internal Complaints Committee constituted for the office of the Chhattisgarh Labour Commissioner, Raipur was not competent at all to enquire the issue, as such Order dated 04.01.19 (Annexurte-P/1) is void ab- initio. 11. It is apt to be noted here that in pursuance of complaint made by respondent No.4/complainant, the District Local Committee had already initiated the enquiry against the petitioner and vide Annexure P/21 dated 27.10.2018 and Annexure-P/32 dated 13.02.2019, it had issued notices to the petitioner and respondent No.4/complainant to make their appearance, but the same has been stayed by this Court vide Order dated 27.3.2019, whereas, that Local Committee constituted under Section 6 of the Act, 2013 8 by the District Officer is competent to enquire the complaint made against the petitioner by respondent No.4. 12. In view of the above discussion, I feel inclined to allow the instant petition. Consequently, Order dated 04.01.2019 (Annexure-P/1), passed by the Internal Complaints Committee, constituted to prevent harassment to women at workplace, is set aside/quashed and stay order dated 27.3.2019, pertaining to staying enquiry proceeding by the Local Committee, passed by this Court, is recalled. Local Committee constituted under Section 6 of the Act 2013, which has initiated enquiry in respect of the complaint made by the respondent No.4/complainant against the petitioner, is set at liberty to proceed ahead and enquire the matter in accordance with law. 13. Accordingly, the petition stands allowed. Sd/- (Naresh Kumar Chadnravanshi) Judge Bini