POSH LAW - 2020 Round up

Armed Forces Tribunal
9th January, 2020
Confidentiality provision under law does not prohibit looking into material in the manner provided under law when matter warrants taking note of it

Goa High Court
16th January, 2020
Inquiry Report of IC was quashed due to defective nature of constitution of IC including not having proper external member

Delhi High Court
10th February, 2020
Employer asked to pay Rs. 1,20,000/- to Petitioner in lieu of the allegations raised by her that she was terminated from the organization after raising complaints of sexual harassment

Madras High Court
17th February, 2020
Law is intended to have an equal standing for women in the workplace and to have a cordial workplace in which their dignity and self-respect are protected. It cannot be allowed to be misused to harass someone with an exaggerated or non-existent allegations

Uttarakhand High Court
15th June, 2020
Sole testimony of victim in a sexual harassment complaint is acceptable in a departmental inquiry and departmental inquiry is not governed by strict rules of Evidence Act

Kerala High Court
29th June, 2020
Surrender can never be perceived as consensual acts of sexual intercourse and consent has to be obtained freely

Calcutta High court
27th November, 2020
Same-gender complaints are acceptable under the provisions of sexual harassment act and that acts of sexual harassment can be perpetrated by members of any gender

Delhi High Court
16th December, 2020
Moral Policing is not the job of the Management or of the IC.
NEWS

04th May, 2020
The controversy triggered by leaked lewd chats from ‘Bois Locker Room’, an Instagram group run by some teenagers had raised serious questions about the mindset of youngsters, their use of social media and the way forward

02nd June, 2020
Women Professionals working through the lockdown have been facing an increasing challenge of sexual harassment. Getting unwarranted video call requests at odd hours, being talked down during virtual meetings were some of the complaints during the nationwide lockdown

01st July, 2020
Harvey Weinstein accusers reached nearly $ 19 Million in settlement amount to settle the sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against him by several victims. Harvey Weinstein was also convicted of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act in New York, resulting in a 23-year prison sentence

30th September, 2020
India reported 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women in 2019 and Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 59,853 such incidents, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019 report released in 2020. Across India, 87 rapes reported per day

27th October, 2020
Director of a travel company in Gurugram was fined Rs. 10.80 lakh for sexually harassing his 27year old colleague and his firm fined Rs. 50,000 for failing to set up an Internal Committee by the Local Committee of Gurugram

30th October, 2020
The Code on wages, which replaces the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, bars bonuses for those facing sexual harassment charges against them. Previously this provision was only applicable to employees dismissed for fraud, violent conduct and theft or sabotage. Now, the provision does not limit the sexual harassment to the physical office space and considers the IC’s decision equivalent to a conviction or acquittal which will form the basis to withhold the bonus

08th December, 2020
India ranked 112th of 153 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index 2020, a drop of four places since 2018. Only 20.3% of women above the age of 15 are in the workforce – a decline of almost 12 percentage points from 31.7% in 2005

23rd December, 2020
Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women takes a suo motu decision against Loyola college and levies a fine of Rs. 64.30 lakhs for wrongful termination of an employee in the wake of a sexual harassment complaint
Something to think about for 2021 -
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