Citation: Shashi Bala v SBM Secondary School (Delhi High Court WP 706 of 2014)
Highlights:
During the interim stage of the complaint, prior to the finding of any conclusions, no challenge is to be made against the findings in such a case.
Facts:
The petitioner in this case filed the petition in order to challenge the disciplinary proceedings that were being carried out by the Internal Complaints Committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act. The appellant contended that the inquiry that was underway was in biased, as well as that she had not wished to proceed under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act in the first place.
Judgement:
The court held that they were unable to find any merit in the appeal, and the same was dismissed without costs.
Rationale:
The Hon’ble Court in this case set it straight that the ICC proceedings would not be stayed while there is a criminal proceeding going on against the accused parallelly. Moreover, the Court also supplemented to the Act, stating that at the interim stage of the complaint, prior to the finding of any conclusions by the ICC, the proceedings of the ICC cannot be challenged. The main aim of the Court in passing this judgement was to deter people from deprecating the practice of challenging the ICC proceedings at the interim stage, which results in the derailing and delaying of the original ICC proceedings.
