Bombay High Court upholds charges against Thane prison SP

Mumbai: The Bombay high court - while upholding the state's decision to charge-sheet Hiralal Jadhav, superintendent of police (SP), Thane jail, for allegedly sexually harassing a woman constable, based on her complaint to DIG prisons - said that the procedure followed by the state did not suffer from any flaws as claimed by the SP, and rejected his plea. According to the SP, the action was not initiated based on a proper complaint by the lady officer but just a written statement and hence, the charge-sheet against him was invalid.

A division bench of acting chief justice V.K. Tahilramani and justice M.S. Karnik was hearing a writ petition filed by SP Jadhav through senior advocate A.V. Anturkar, challenging a Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) order to charge-sheet him for sexual harassment. While arguing about the faulty procedure, advocate Anturkar said that rather than complaining to the internal committee, the lady constable complained to Swati Sathe, DIG prisons, Pune. He further said that the enquiry committee comprising additional commissioner of police, Mumbai, Ashwati Dorje, was also not in consonance with the procedure laid down in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and hence, the charge-sheet against SP Jadhav was not sustainable.

However, special counsel for the state, Satish Talekar, informed the court that as the existing internal committee was headed by an officer junior to SP Jadhav, the complaint was made to an official senior to him i.e. Ms Sathe, and the enquiry committee was also justifiably constituted for similar reasons. Advocate Talekar further pointed out that the 2013 Act did not abrogate the Maharashtra Civil Service Rules, 1979, and hence, action initiated by the state against SP Jadhav was valid.

Satisfied with advocate Talekar's submissions, the court upheld the MAT order and dismissed the petition.