Dear All,
The following appeared in "Hindustan Times", New Delhi Edition on January 30,2009, page no. 10.
May be useful for future references.
Keep Smiling ... HemantAgarwal
Whistling part of college life, not s*xual harassment, says SC
THE SUPREME Court on Thursday said it would consider framing a policy on s*xual harassment at higher educational institutions. A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan directed the petitioner Medha Kotwal to submit suggestions regarding the policy .
The bench asked senior advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioner to specify how s*xual harassment should be d e f i n e d . “Whistling cannot be categorised as s e x u a l harassment,” said the CJI, adding: “This is part of college life.” He also declined to entertain the petitioner’s plea to have a police probe in cases involving s*xual harassment.
Asking Kotwal to concentrate on educational institutions, the bench said her suggestions to deal with s*xual harassment of a student should be different from that of a college employee. “The two cannot be covered by a common policy,” the bench added.
Kotwal had approached Supreme Court seeking its direction to categorise s*xual harassment and also order police probe in such cases.
