Law & Justice

Delhi HC Criticizes Centre Over Disclosure of Harassment Survivor's Identity in Official Handbook

By PTI

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday criticized the central government for revealing the identity of a workplace sexual harassment survivor in a POSH handbook published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma stressed that the government is bound by the same laws that prohibit disclosing the identity of survivors of sexual offences, noting that such disclosure is a punishable offence.

Justice Sharma questioned how the government could publish and circulate material revealing the survivor's name on its own official website. She directed the central government's lawyer to return with the names of officials responsible for the content, and listed the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the man accused in the case, who stated that the matter had since been settled and sought removal of his name from the handbook. His counsel told the court that a labour tribunal order related to the incident had been included in the ministry's handbook as an anecdote, disclosing both the petitioner's identity and the woman's name. The counsel added that the handbook was widely available online.

The Centre's counsel explained that the handbook was published in November 2015 for educational purposes, and that the parties involved had reached a settlement only recently. Justice Sharma responded that even a court judgment cannot disclose a survivor's identity, and that the woman's identity could not be revealed even after a settlement. She noted that judges typically refer to survivors using placeholders such as "X" in line with Supreme Court and High Court directions, and said that revealing the survivor's name was unnecessary for educational purposes.

The court further observed that judicial protections for survivors' identities existed even before 2015, and that authorities could not be excused from following the law merely because a party had approached the court late. It stated that this responsibility applies equally to the government.

The petitioner also requested directions for Google to de-link and de-index the content. His counsel said the alleged incident occurred in 2001, and that he had subsequently filed a defamation case against the woman in Delhi over the allegations.