PoSH Law India Update - July '25 Edition

Dive into the key ruling and legal updates in the July '25 edition of PoSH Law India update.

1. UGC: Online Harassment Now Considered Ragging

   
   

   The UGC has expanded its definition of ragging to include harassment via digital platforms like WhatsApp. Informal threats, humiliation, and psychological abuse, whether online or offline, will now be treated as serious offenses. Institutions ignoring such behavior could face loss or other penalties. The update reflects the changing nature of student interactions and highlights the need for digital vigilance to maintain safe educational environments.

   
   

2. MP Woman Judge Resigns After Accused Judicial Officer Is Appointed to High Court

   
   

   After District Judge Rajesh Kumar Gupta, whom she had officially accused of harassment, was promoted to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Aditi Kumar Sharma, a junior division civil judge in Madhya Pradesh, resigned in protest. She stated in a strong letter of resignation dated July 29 that she was leaving because justice had "lost its way" within the same organisation she had sworn to serve, not because she had lost trust in it. Sharma claimed years of persistent institutional harassment, pointing to abuses of power and caste, and she was extremely frustrated that her complaints, which she had made to the President, the Supreme Court, and the High Court registrar, had gone unanswered. The Supreme Court earlier quashed her termination in 2023 as “punitive, arbitrary and illegal,” yet she claimed that, despite documentation, no inquiry or notice was ever issued against Gupta. Her resignation, she said, was not closure but a statement of betrayal “the judiciary failed me, and worse, it failed itself.”

   
   

3. Dismissal of DU Professor accused of sexually harassing students upheld by Delhi High Court

   
   

   In early 2018, Dr. Amit Kumar, a professor at Delhi University's Bharti College, was found guilty of sexually harassing four people, three students and one alumnus, through inappropriate Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp messages. The findings of the Internal Committee (IC) were upheld by a bench headed by Justice Subramonium Prasad. The IC concluded that the texts were inappropriate for a teacher and contained sexual innuendo. As a result, DU sent out a mandatory retirement notice. The High Court upheld that virtual contacts between instructors and students are considered workplace conduct and dismissed Dr. Kumar's suit contesting the IC's structure, the investigation's methodology, and the application of the PoSH Act. It did not discover any bias or procedural violations. Justice Prasad emphasised that teachers occupy a position of trust and that such misconduct deeply harms the psyche of young students, often deterring them from reporting such behaviour. Read the Judgment here.

   
   

4. Mere Workplace Harassment does not amount to offence under section 509 of IPC - Calcutta High Court

   
   

   In X v State of West Bengal (CRR 2610 of 2019), the Calcutta High Court held that workplace harassment or abuse alone does not amount to outraging a woman’s modesty under Section 509 of the IPC unless specific ingredients of the offence are met. The complainant had accused the petitioner of harassment at her former workplace, but the Court found no clear allegations or evidence of gestures, words, or acts intended to insult her modesty. The Court noted that general claims of harassment or abuse, without detail, do not meet the legal threshold under Section 509. Since the complaint lacked such specifics, the Court quashed the case. The Petitioner had also been cleared earlier by the Internal Committee under the PoSH Act.