To borrow the words of one anonymous tipster, we’ve not been living under a rock for the past weeks.
Sexual harassment has become an international issue, particularly in the entertainment industries beginning with the fall from grace of Harvey Weinstein and a stream of women and men in other industries too who have begun calling out harassment, often even eschewing anonymity.
In India, it was the release of a list of alleged (and some proven) sexual harassers in Indian academia that has begun making waves and has been written about greatly (yes, one NLSIU Bangalore professor and one NLSIU alumnus are on the list, but due to the limited nature publicly available surrounding the exact complaints, we have not been able to independently corroborate these yet).
However, the problem is likely to be bigger than that.
Let's be honest: lawyers don't have a great reputation when it comes to sexual harassment, whether it's in the courts, law firms, corporates or academia.
If anything, the close-knit and cabalistic nature of the legal profession can make it nearly as hard for sexual harassment allegations to surface and to be dealt with as in Hollywood (Bollywood - let's not even go there).
For instance, the alleged sexual harassment of interns by two (former) Supreme Court judges, which we had reported on extensively , kicked off an unprecedented level of debate in the legal profession and caused the creation of a sexual harassment committee at the Supreme Court.
It also directly resulted in the resignation of ex-SC judge and then-West Bengal human rights commission chairman AK Ganguly (after parliament was ready to begin impeachment of him, after the Supreme Court found prima facie evidence against him, and after the allegations spurred, in-part politicised, protests in Calcutta).
The sex harassment allegations by a former NUJS Kolkata student intern against ex-Justice and still-National Green Tribunal (NGT) chairman Swatanter Kumar too certainly had prima facie merit, according to our investigations. However, the hard-nosed pursuit by Kumar and his lawyers of the complainant, entangling her in legal treacle, and against media reporting the allegation, quickly seemed to put a lid on further complaints against judges (with the possible exception of the complaint by a junior colleague against Madhya Pradesh high court judge SK Gangele).
And while time has historically been a great healer for the reputations of Ganguly, Kumar and other powerful men ;; accused of harassment, no one can seriously suggest that the problem of sexual harassment in the courts, the bench and law firms doesn't exist anymore.
Lawyer Shwetasree Majumder wrote an eye-opening account in the Huffington Post last year, and Indian lawyer working in New York recounted her ordeals, and one student shared her campus experiences, but for the most part, talking about sexual harassment still remains taboo in a profession where careers of lawyers often depend greatly on the goodwill of former employers and what they tell their closely-knit social networks over backchannels.
Even in our position of reporting on the legal market daily, we have only heard a rumour of one named partner at a Big Seven law firm who was asked to leave after sex harassment allegations (in another recent Big Seven case, which commenters will no doubt remind me of, I reliably understand after extensive investigation that the complaint had been dealt with to the satisfaction of everyone involved and that we should not take it further).
All that said, we think that maybe the time is ripe to re-start a discussion on sex harassment in the law, whether in law firms, corporates, the courts or in legal academia.
Let's start to talk
The aims and ground rules of this project are the following:
- First and foremost, we hope to get and publicise an idea of the scale of the problem in the legal profession.
- Confidentiality and wishes of complainants come first: we will not publish anything identifiable about any complaint, unless we have your permission. We have spoken to many, many complainants of sexual harassment over the years, and I believe we have always dealt with these sensitively and fairly: we know how harrowing a formal legal or complaints process can be, and do not wish to force anyone's hand or decision along a path they're not ok with.
- At this point, we do not intend to publish a list of sexual harassers (at least, not without doing a significant amount of homework, keeping in mind wishes of complaints, and unless we can corroborate accounts and give alleged harassers a chance to respond, if they choose to do so).
In light of the above, our ask is this: if you have faced or are aware of instances of sexual harassment in the legal profession, please share your account via the form below (or in a comment, marked not for publication). There is no time limit on submissions, as such - we intend to follow up complaints posted here at any time in future too.
To protect privacy and confidentiality online, Legally India, the below form and comments are now served over an encrypted connection. We do not record IP addresses of contact form submissions (though we do, in the case of comments under stories).
However, we would urge you to also include some way of contacting you in case we have any follow-up queries and we can establish how you would like us to proceed. If possible, please provide the following:
- Name of the person who sexually harassed you.
- Date(s) and description of incident(s).
- Steps taken, if any, to resolve the complaint.
- How would you like us to proceed? Would you be ok with us reaching out to the harasser to ask for comment? Would you be ok with us potentially publishing your complaint, without revealing your identity? If not, would you be ok with us publishing your account without any identifying information (including the identity of the harasser and/or firm or organisation).
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below, or contact me directly via encrypted WhatsApp message or call on +91 900 405 6651.
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Another additional way is women should wear cameras on their bodies especially on their chest so whosoever ogles, a camera shot can be taken immediately.
I hope you get what I am talking.
@kian: Are we to understand that you record the IP addresses and possibly also share them with other relevant parties. I only ask because a lot of your readers are under the impression that their comments are largely anonymous on this forum.
This has a lot of consequences, specially with respect to your reports about various law firms, and any comments which the current employees might make, against such firms.
IP addresses are recorded in comments mainly for technical reasons, to prevent spam.
We never trace back IP addresses or try to find out where they are based, which in any case would be a very imprecise science in the majority of cases (unless you're the police).
In any case, I will take a look at whether it's possible to achieve some of those technical aims without recording IP addresses.
But people should know, that even encrypted, nothing online is ever guaranteed 100% safe, and most websites are set up in such a way that people do leave some footprints (such as IP addresses) online, nearly every time they visit a website. And if you are using a work computer to post comments, for instance, a few employers / companies have do install software that monitors internet usage from the work computer directly (which would not benefit from advantages such as SSL encryption that we now use).
Anyway, for the avoidance of doubt and in summary, I repeat: we will fight tooth and nail to protect the identities of our readers.
Yes, we would be interested in hearing about situations on law school campuses between students also.
I had wanted to make a comment but inadvertently sent it as a message to LI. Ref: sita-supankha. Would it be possible for you to reproduce the same as a comment below ?
Do you know the potential of abuse of such a mechanism. While it's being carried out with honorable intentions, one can easily tarnish the reputation of legal luminaries in a single revenge-fuelled tryst with keyboard. What if one decides to frame a case against [...] because he had insulted someone for shoddy work or [...] because of his harsh comments on a draft. Increasingly the movement towards protection of women against sexual harassment is showing symptoms of a sword rather than a shield. I saw several #metoo posts where reputations have been tarnished for 'sweet-talking' and 'flirting' where the concept of sexual harassment has been imposed on the alleged offender retrospectively and in hindsight.
A recent judgment of BHC on drunken consent after four glasses of LIT was held to be invalid. The judgment was cast in appalling ignorance of realities of the younger generation. Law colleges are filled with alcohol fuelled sex escapades. Is every incident going to be treated as rape then?
Please use this as a tool punish the Ravans and not the Krishnas. Please use this tool to protect the Sitas and the Supanakha.
I think it's an interesting and difficult question. However, I also think it's harder than you think to concoct from scratch a 'revenge-fuelled tryst' from a keyboard... And we do not intend to publish names until we've had a chance to do our homework, so that risk is limited...
We primarily go by the wishes of the complainant. If a complainant does not want us to report on a story, we will respect that.
While exercise of coercive tactics in a sexual overture is pathetic/despicable (and now a criminal act), to count an overture that lacks a coercive element is also unfair. the way I see it, the law needs a genuine review. While all coercive sexual overtures/behaviour ought to be clobbered, normal human behaviour ought to be left alone
1. No unproven allegations are made public. We are all lawyers here and due process is an integral part of law.
2. Please be careful of relationships gone wrong, and then allegations being made. Appreciate that unlike popular conception, a lot goes on in secret.
3. Tough seniors or harsh feedback should not, without other factors be counted as harassment. It's entirely sexist to expect girls to get easier or better treatment or not be expected to work as hard as boys.
4. You would no doubt be aware of the high court order saying mere contact without intention is not sexual harassment.
No doubt many many women have had to endure all kinds of bad behavior, but IMHO the conversation on sexual harassment should be about moving forward, not seeking blood.
Similarly, at NALSAR, during the early 2000s one guy was ragged so badly that he had to leave. Many other instances have occurred.
At NLUJ recent incidents have been reported in LI and MSM, and the people named. But the people who ragged in the 90s and 2000s got away as the internet was not big then. Will you agree to name and shame these people? If Weinstein can be held accountable for what he did 20 years ago why not these people?
Will Legally India agreed to break the omerta among the NLU mafia? Will the articulate lefty feminists who graduated from NLUs-- Menaka Guruswamy, Mihira Sud etc --- have the guts to name their batchmates who indulged in sexual ragging?
I can give you at least 10 names of top NLU grads from the 90s/2000s who indulged in sexual ragging.
Witch hunt by ultra feminists - umm, who are ultra feminisists? do you even understand what feminism is? Newsflash - it is not man bashing. We have much harder battles to fight against a systemically unjust society. And few people have time and energy to go around making false allegations. And you know what, 99% of the real incidents will never get out anyway. And you worry about some potential misuse? Just remeber that number of victims who will never receive justice will always be many many times more.
Dont punish the Krishnas - Why? because it is cool to steal clothes of bathing women? Because it is cool and romantic to "flirt" with your juniors? What is meat for the Krishna is poison for the people on the receiving end. Have you ever thought of that?
No unproven allegations are made public. We are all lawyers here and due process is an integral part of law - Sure, what do you want? 4 adult male witnesses? Many of these crimes happen in the dark corridors of power. That does not leave much chance to prove. And again, the proof that the system is not completely abused is evident through the minute number of allegations that are proven. Every time you think, not one innocent person should be punished, remenber that 99% of the perpetrators get away anyway.
...IMHO the conversation on sexual harassment should be about moving forward, not seeking blood - You know what, keep that rotting stinking opinion to yourself. You have never been at the receiving end of sexual harrasment, clearly. You have never had PTSD, never had flashbacks, for years, never woken up in cold sweat, never analysed a single incident in mind for thousands of times to see if you were to be blamed, never cried long enough that your eyes ran dry, never met the attacker in the eyes and realized, you are HELPLESS. So, please, keep your effing honest opinion to yourself.
Completely agree. I think the whole article should be taken down as it will be used by bitter, jealous, insecure women - You win the daily internet award for vicious idiocy. Come, I slow clap for you.
On the larger debate, there are always two sides to a story, and just because a woman is perceived to be the weaker "victim" is no reason to blindly believe all sob-stories that are peddled by those who want everything on their terms. Contrary to many who would want us to believe that the "victim" is always a woman who is unable to narrate her ordeal for fear of greater social ostracism, it is always the male who is left defenseless by a neo-liberal social-media-soundbyte-hungry faceless society.
The truth is, ostracism of either gender is unfair. The truth is known only to the two people involved and to The One above. Ever wondered, why or how is it that the women in Affaire-de-Weinstein and Affaire-de-Hoffman remained silent for decades while accepting one benefit after another from them? Did they not have a choice to say no? Some did and walked away from big career opportunities to be safe and at peace. They are to be believed and respected. Those who played along, why must we believe that they were harassed and did not do it to support their ambition knowing fully well that the path was not honest? Because in their hearts these ladies know they did not deserve what they were getting. Every woman can, must and should set the lakshman rekha, and it doesn't take much to do so -everyone's demeanour puts the world to notice about what their limits are. No man will ever dare breach the lakshman rekha where the one drawing the line is firm and clear. No one can be victimised against their desire.
And to love someone genuinely and to go the extra mile out of love is not sexual harassment if one hasn't made any sexual advances. Otherwise, every parent could be accused of sexually harassing their children because the parent exercises authority over a person of the opposite gender. That is obviously not what anyone on this forum would countenance, I am sure.
Our world would be a better place if we respected all men and women alike and no one used their gender to seek favours or concessions or unmerited success, but stood their place in the queue and worked as hard as the others who achieved success through their industry. Those of good and strong character never bow down to any power other than God. Which is what Radha and all the lovely women in Gokul did, and Krishna loved them all, not as a sexual harasser, but as someone who loved beauty in everything in the world - the mountains, rivers, trees, birds, animals, humans. If you do not know what being Krishna means, please educate yourself before purveying your utter lack of knowledge.
This article gives a detailed account
www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/culture-of-silence-enables-men-to-continue-predatory-behaviour-with-women-47846
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