DM Monitoring
New Delhi: An Indian Air Force (IAF) woman pilot has moved the Jammu and Kashmir high court alleging sexual harassment on the part of her flight commander and a subsequent unfair inquiry conducted by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), Bar and Bench reported.
The court has issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Defence and Air Force officials, asking them to file their responses within four weeks.
Not only did the accused officer pass objectionable comments against her, he also repeatedly demanded sexual favours from the woman officer and touched her inappropriately, the plea stated, as per the report. “He touched her on her shoulder from behind and made lewd remarks with lustful eyes and demeanor Le tujhe touch kiya ab kaise karegi apne aap ko sanitise?” the petition said. “The petitioner didn’t feel comfortable but didn’t know how to react as she had not expected this response. The said touch was unwelcome and extremely unsolicited and was an assault on the dignity of the complainant being a lady officer,” the petition further said.
The petitioner also raised objection to the way the ICC of the Armed Forces conducted its inquiry as per the Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act). “About 300 questions were put to the petitioner and even obscene and dishonourable questions were put to the petitioner without ICC’s intervention and without objecting on irrelevant and obscene questions like “who is a nursing women, did any doctor force you to nurse your child?” etc. The entire concept of lengthy cross examination is making the same a full fledged trial than a summary fact finding inquiry.”
During the petitioner’s time in a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) squadron, the accused was a squadron leader. On numerous occasions, the accused had tried to come close and tried to befriend her with wrong intentions, the petitioner alleged in her plea.
After two years and two months, the woman officer was transferred to be posted at Awantipur with her husband, who is also an Air Force officer. According to the report, the petitioner alleged that the harassment started then. “The respondent tried to cross his limits and he passed a lewd and sexually coloured remark/comment…isko hath lagao toh current lagta hai. Petitioner firmly told him not to pass such lewd comments,” the plea alleged.
The accused again allegedly passed lustful remarks at the petitioner at a Diwali party, the petition said.
The matter also started to reflect at her work, as the accused asked the commanding officer of air squadron to give her a “written order to proceed in service aircraft without her son”, while being aware that the petitioner was still nursing her child, the plea stated.
“When petitioner conveyed her constraints and also the fact that despite of other Op crew availability, respondent no. 8 (the accused) asked respondent 4 (commanding officer of air squadron) to take action against petitioner,” the plea said.
Following multiple instances of harassment, the petitioner lodged a complaint with the IAF authorities on December 18, 2020. However, the respondents did not assist the petitioner in lodging a first information report (FIR) against the accused. Therefore, she had to eventually report the matter to the police on her own. Later, the accused got bail in the case and filed a plea before the high court to quash the case.
The petitioner alleged that the Air Force Order (AFO), under which the ICC proceedings are held, is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. It doesn’t give the complainant the right to cross-examine the accused or his witnesses, but she and her witnesses can be subject to cross-examination.
“The AFO says that first the aggrieved woman will make her statement then she will be cross examined by the respondent. Then her witnesses will depose their statements and they would be cross examined by the respondent. Now the respondent will make his statement again to the ICC having additional knowledge after the earlier procedure and then his own witnesses will be produced, however the right of the aggrieved woman to cross examine has not been provided,” the petition explained.
The petitioner and her witnesses were subjected to intimidation and detailed cross-examination over the course of six days. Therefore, she contended that either the petitioner should also get the right to cross-examine the accused and his witnesses or the same right should not be extended to the accused. “The ICC is not a temporary fact-finding body but a committee with a fixed tenure. However, the same has been changing one after the another without even spelling the reasons to the petitioner,” the plea stated. The petitioner has sought a direction to the ICC to hold a fair inquiry, and also prayed for the transfer of the accused person so that he does not threaten and harass her and other witnesses. The matter will be heard next on May 10.
