Bombay High Court fines Vodafone over sexual harassment case

New Delhi, Oct 24: The Bombay High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on dismissing a sexual harassment complaint against Vodafone Essar Ltd (it is now Vodafone) and its former top executives of the company.

The court said that the penalty is to be paid to the War Widows' Association for not having an internal complaints committee as per Vishaka guidelines in place at the relevant time.

While passing the judgement, a division bench of Justice Amjad Sayyed and Justice MS Karnik said, "Though we are not inclined to direct payment of compensation to the petitioner (ex-employee) by the Respondent No.1 (Vodafone-Essar Limited), we do note that company had not followed the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Vishaka as there was no Complaints Committee constituted, at the relevant time."

The case was filed by an employee who was terminated from service in August 2000. She had alleged that she was terminated from the job because of her refusal to the demands of sexual favors by her Chief Operating Officer.

She had further alleged that her immediate senior and another executive helped the COO put pressure on her.

Further, directing the amount to be deposited within six weeks, from October 13, the court said, "Even assuming that there was no complaint of the petitioner on record of the company, during the course of her employment, we find that nothing prevented the company from inquiring into her grievance even after her termination. However, there was no Complaints Committee in place to inquire into the sexual harassment complaint made by the petitioner".