Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench has granted interim relief to four state tax department officials who had probed a sexual harassment complaint, staying the charge sheet issued against them.
Justice Rajiv Singh passed the order while hearing separate writ petitions filed by the four officials, who had challenged the charge sheet issued on Feb 23. The petitioners are deputy commissioner Pratibha , assistant commissioners Pooja Gautam and Komal Chhabra and deputy commissioner Sanjeev Kumar . Appearing for the petitioners, advocates Alok Mishra and Priyanshu Shukla submitted that the officials had recorded relevant facts and statements of witnesses while conducting the inquiry. . However, the charge sheet issued against them questioned the very procedure followed during the inquiry. The petitioners contended that the charges were vague. They argued if officials entrusted with inquiries into sexual harassment complaints were subjected to departmental proceedings merely for the procedure adopted during such inquiries, it could discourage officers from conducting such inquiries in future. The court directed the state govt to file its counter-affidavit within two weeks and