Supreme Court stays Madras HC order transferring sexual harassment probe against DVAC Director to Telangana

The Supreme Court has stayed the Madras High Court’s recent order transferring the investigation into sexual harassment allegations against S Murugan, Joint Director of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), from Tamil Nadu to Telangana..The order was stayed on September 23 by a Bench of Justices Indu Malhotra and R Subhash Reddy in a Special Leave Petition filed by Murugan..Notice was issued to the Respondents on the point of the jurisdiction of the High Court to transfer the proceedings for enquiry into the complaint of sexual harassment to another State..The case is now listed for hearing on October 14..Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared for Murugan, assisted by Advocate Mayank Kshirsagar. Additional Advocate General Balaji Srinivasan appeared for the State of Tamil Nadu along with advocate Yogesh Kanna..In his plea, Murugan has contended,.“The impugned judgment disregards the law, as interpreted by this Hon’ble Court, with regard to Article 226, as well as the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women in the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 and the flagrant violation of pre principles of the natural justice committed by the Respondents.“.Arguing that the transfer order exceeds the powers conferred on the High Court under Article 226, Murugan has submitted,.“…unless the case of action arises wholly or in part in other territories (other than the state its situated in), the Hon’ble High Court does not have any jurisdiction over the other territory. Thus, in the present case, the Hon’ble High Court’s impugned order is bad in law as the Court below was not competent to pass such an order as no part of the cause of action arose in Telangana. The matter wholly arose in the State of Tamil Nadu and the State of Tamil Nadu and the Honb’le High Court erred grievously while passing the impugned Judgment.“.The petition adds that the High Court’s transfer of the probe to Telangana has created an absurd situation, particularly given that the High Court has kept the case pending before it for supervisory purposes. In this regard, Murugan’s plea states,.“The [High] Court …does not exercise any supervisory jurisdiction on the State of Telangana, thus in case for instance the Petitioner or any party is aggrieved by any proceedings in FIR or the enquiry committee, the same will lie to the state of Telangana since all matters have stood transferred there, however, the compliance and superintendence continues to be with the High Court of Madras…..…Thus, impugned order is not only exceeding the jurisdiction vested in it under Article 226 but also leads to absurdity as regards the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court below. The impugned order deserves to be interfered with.“.In this backdrop, the Murugan’s plea also registers protest to the High Court having assumed powers that are more in the realm of powers exercised by the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution. While asserting that the power of the High Court under Article 226 is not the same as the powers of the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution, the plea states,.“The impugned order is self indicative of the manner in which the jurisdiction is exercised by the Court below under Article 226 is in the nature of Article 142 thereby moulding the relief as prayed for by either parties and rather than adjudicating the matter by itself transferring the proceedings to the State of Telangana. The mannerism of exercise of power by the Court below thus requires to be considered by this Hon’ble Court.“.Murugan has also contended that there has been a violation of natural justice principles in the manner in which the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) handled the sexual harassment allegations. Further, he has also challenged the competence of the ICC itself. While also contending that the Madras High Court had not taken note of these “egregious violations”, Murugan has called for the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter..On August 28, a Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and CV Karthikeyan passed an order transferring the probe into sexual harassment allegations made by a woman Superintendent of Police against the DVAC joint director to Telangana. The complainant had approached the High Court last year on apprehensions that her complaint may not be handled fairly. She had also prayed for her transfer from the DVAC department..The High Court eventually found it appropriate to transfer the probe to the Telanagana police, despite strong objections made by the State of Tamil Nadu. However, the matter had been kept pending by the High Court, with the Bench also directing the Telangana police to submit an investigation report to the High Court within six months..[Read Supreme Court Order].[Read the SLP].[Read the Madras HC judgment]