The Bombay High Court recently ruled that telling a woman that she must be using JCB to manager her hair and singing song related to her hair can’t be termed sexual harassment. The court made the observations while qashing a case filed against an employee of HDFC Bank under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.
Justice Sandeep Marne said in the order on 18 March that it is difficult to say that the conduct of accused Vindo Kachave amounts to sexual harassment. “So far as the first incident is concerned, the same relates to passing of comment by the Petitioner with regard to length and volume of the complainant’s hair and he singing a song relating to her hair. Considering the nature of comment allegedly made by the Petitioner towards the complainant it becomes difficult to believe that the same was made with an intent of causing any sexual harassment to the complainant. She herself never perceived the comment as sexual harassment when the comment was made,” Justice Marne noted in the judgement.
As per a report by Live Law, the petitioner said that the incident took place during a training session in June 2022. At the event, Vindo Kachave noted that the complainant woman was frequently adjusting her hair, and it seemed that she was uncomfortable with her hair. Therefore, he told her in a lighter vein, “you must be using a JCB to manage your hair”.
After that, to make her comfortable, he sang few lines of the Hindi song “Yeh Reshmi Zulfe” from the 1970 movie Do Raaste.
Kachave’s counsel Sana Raees Khan told the court that his only intention was to tell the woman that if she was feeling uncomfortable with her hair, she should tuck it, as she was distracting him and others in the session.
The petition also produced WhatsApp messages between him and the woman showing that he had also motivated her for performance. Therefore, the court said that even if the allegations are true, it becomes difficult to hold that the Petitioner has committed any act of sexual harassment.
The complainant also mentioned another incident at a different training session. At that time, when another male employee was talking on phone, the petitioner asked whether he was talking to his girlfriend. When that man said that he didn’t have a girlfriend, the petitioner allegedly asked him “Kyu tumhara machine kharab hai?” The woman said that she felt uncomfortable at such comment, and added it as another incident of sexual harassment.
But the court declined to accept this because there was no evidence that she was present there when then alleged comment was made. Moreover, it was addressed to another man, not her, therefore it becomes difficult to believe that it would cause any sexual harassment personally to the complainant, the court ruled.
With this verdict, the high court quashed the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) report against the petitioner.
