‘How can you do that?’ Delhi HC slams Centre over survivor’s name in POSH handbook

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Centre for disclosing the identity of a sexual harassment survivor in a handbook on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) law published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma stressed that the government is also bound by the law, which prohibits disclosure of the identity of a survivor of a sexual offence and makes such disclosure punishable.

"How is the name of the victim disclosed in this? How can you do that? You are the government of India. You yourself are publishing (handbooks) revealing the name of the victim and you are circulating it. It is on your official website," Justice Sharma said.

The court directed the Centre's lawyer to return with the names of officials "responsible for this content" and listed the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the alleged perpetrator, who said the dispute had since been settled and sought removal of his name from the handbook.

According to the petitioner's counsel, an order passed by a labour tribunal in connection with the alleged incident was included as an anecdote in the ministry's POSH handbook. The counsel said the publication disclosed both the petitioner's identity and the woman's name.

The handbook is "everywhere and anywhere" on the internet, the lawyer said.

The Centre's counsel told the court that the handbook was published in November 2015 for educational purposes and that the parties had only recently settled the dispute.

"So will it reveal the name of the victim? Even a judgement cannot," Justice Sharma responded, making it clear that the woman's identity could not be disclosed even after the settlement.

"For educational purpose you don't need the victim's name, right? Even the judges write 'X'. There is a Supreme court judgement. There are directions of the high court. You can't disclose the name. Now it is punishable,"

The court noted that judicial directions requiring protection of a survivor's identity were already in place before 2015. It said the authorities could not escape their responsibility to comply with the law merely because the issue was being raised before the court at a later stage.

"Even if they are late in coming to the court, that will not absolve you of your responsibility of following the law. That's for everybody, even the government, right?" the court told the Centre's lawyer.

The petitioner has also sought directions to Google to de-link and de-index the content containing the disputed information.

The petitioner's counsel said the alleged incident occurred in 2001 and that he had subsequently filed a defamation case in Delhi against the woman over the allegations.