Policy and Redressal Mechanism

Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Fergusson College has constituted an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) with an inbuilt mechanism for gender sensitization against sexual harassment under the University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2015).

This policy shall be applicable to all gender based violence perpetrated by or:

• Against employees and students of all sexes within the campus or the workplace.
• Against service provider or outsider when the sexual harassment is alleged to have taken place within the campus or the workplace.

Sexual harassment:

As per Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, sexual harassment includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behavior (whether directly or by implication) namely:

• Physical contact and advances.
• A demand or request for sexual favors.
• Making sexually colored remarks.
• Sending, displaying or showing of pornographic material in physical form or through any electronic media.
• Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.
• Any other acts or omissions that are of like nature to the instances above.

Process of making complaint of sexual harassment:

• An aggrieved person (complainant) may either submit a written complaint by email or in person to the ICC within three months from the date of the incident and in case of a series of incidents within a period of three months from the date of the last incident.
• The complaint should include details of the incidence such as location, date, witness (if any)
• The identities of the aggrieved person, the victim, the witness or the respondent (offender) shall not be made public especially during the process of the inquiry.

Process of conducting inquiry:

• On receiving the complaint, ICC shall review the complaint and send one copy of the complaint to the respondent within a period of seven days.
• Upon receipt of the copy of the complaint, the respondent shall file his or her reply to the complaint along with the list of documents, and names and addresses of witnesses within a period of ten days.
• ICC shall complete the inquiry within a period of ninety days from the receipt of the complaint and submit the report within ten days from the completion of the inquiry to the Executive Authority of the institute.
• The Executive Authority of the institute shall act on the recommendations of the committee within a period of thirty days from the receipt of the inquiry report, unless an appeal against the findings is filed within that time by either the complainant or the respondent.
• If complainant or the respondent is not satisfactory with the recommendations made by ICC, an appeal may be filed by the complainant or the respondent before the Executive Authority of the institute within a period of thirty days from the date of the recommendations.
• The aggrieved person may seek conciliation (non-monetary) in order to settle the matter through ICC.

Punishment and compensation:

• If the respondent is found guilty of sexual harassment, he/she shall be punished in accordance with the service rules of the higher educational institute in case the offender is an employee.
• Where the respondent is a student, depending upon the severity of the offence, the higher educational institute may,
  • (i) withhold privileges of the student such as access to the library, auditoria, halls of residence, transportation, scholarships, allowances, and identity card.
  • (ii) suspend or restrict entry into the campus for a specific period.
  • (iii) expel and strike off name from the rolls of the institution, including denial of readmission, if the offence so warrants.
  • (iv) award reformative punishments like mandatory counselling and, or, performance of community service.

Action against frivolous (false) complaint:

• If the ICC concludes that the allegations made are false, malicious, untrue, forged or misleading information, the complainant shall be liable to be punished as per the provisions of sub-regulations (1) of regulations 10, if the complainant happens to be an employee and as per sub-regulation (2) of that regulation, if the complainant happens to be a student.

Reference:

• More details of UGC regulations for Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment at Workplace can be obtained from: