Understanding The Sexual Harassment Case Against CJI – What If The Accused Was A CEO Instead?

Women who accuse men, particularly powerful men, of harassment are often confronted with the reality of the men’s sense that they are more important than women, as a group.”

– Anita Hill

The Supreme Court, in the year 1997, passed a historic and landmark judgement, otherwise known as Vishakha Guidelines, introducing proper legal guidelines on addressing sexual harassment in the workplace. Now, in the year 2019, the Supreme Court, in the case of sexual harassment allegations against the Chief Justice of India, is about to create another record. The fear is that it’s going to be a shameful milestone.

On 20th April 2019, a woman, who had until very recently been a Supreme Court staff member, sent copies of her affidavit to 22 judges, in which she detailed the allegations of sexual harassment she had experienced at the hands of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. Much like the onslaught of #NotAllMen that every woman online has had to endure, Advocate Utsav Bains rushed in to declare ‘conspiracy’ faster than the bullet trains.

Yes, it is entirely possible that this case is fabricated. It is also equally likely that this case is genuine and our CJI is guilty. Sexual harassment cases are rarely black and white, often being opaque and hazy instead. One finds it very easy to see different narratives in the same story, partly due to our confirmation bias.

To better understand this case and its current and ongoing downfalls, let’s remove the legalese and the status from this case. Consider a situation where Rahul Gupta is just another man, working as a CEO in a corporate office. Over the years, he has promoted a junior female employee up the ranks and ultimately to his team. This female employee’s husband already works in their corporate’s sister organisation. Her disabled brother-in-law recently got placed in another department, thanks to Rahul Gupta’s recommendation.

Now, the case starts when this female employee took a casual leave and upon joining office again, she received a notice from the HR about a disciplinary inquiry due to her taking leave and other alleged violation of administrative rules. While this is happening, she has been transferred into three different departments, all within a single month! On the day of the disciplinary meeting, she faints and is rushed to the hospital. Nevertheless, the management has not been happy with her explanations, and she is fired.

In the meanwhile, her husband has been let go overnight, ending his career of more than a decade. Her brother-in-law, who was serving his probationary period, was asked to leave as well. Furthermore, she’s also detained by the police for alleged misappropriation of funds from the corporate office.

This may look like sheer misfortune on the female employee’s family, but she says it’s way deeper than that. She claims that Rahul Gupta, in the months before her employment termination, had sexually harassed her. When she rejected his sexual advances, she and her family had to face retaliation through institutional means.

Pushed into a corner, she sends in an email narrating her ordeal to the board of directors. In a typical scenario, the company would ideally investigate the claim and see if it has any merits. If yes, then disciplinary action would be taken against Rahul Gupta.

Now, all the directors and other company stakeholders were quite worried and some of them, including the accused CEO Rahul Gupta, came together for an urgent board meeting. Rahul, naturally, denied all allegations. The members spoke about the complainant letter and how it was an attack on their company and its integrity. Rahul also made unsavoury remarks about the complainant and said that she’s involved in criminal cases. As if people who have criminal cases against them cannot be sexually harassed! The board directors present in this meeting collectively state that this complaint is an attempt to break apart the board and therefore, an attack on the company.

Firstly, an allegation against Rahul Gupta, the CEO of one company is not an allegation against the company. Rahul Gupta is the highest officer responsible for his company, but he is not the company himself. Second, he called for a board meeting, chose its members and was leading it as an official meeting. If he is the accused, his presence in this meeting is unacceptable. To top it off, he mischievously left out on signing the minutes of the meeting! This means that apart from those who know what happened, there is no official record of his presence and participation in this meeting!

The employees union of the corporate office, instead of supporting the complainant, published a memo stating their full support towards Rahul Gupta. This is very suspicious since the only information openly available to them is the complaint letter and not the contents of the meeting in which the case was put down, and Rahul was given a clean chit. How can they decide without any report and just based on the…