National
Woman official alleges harassment
By J. Venkatesan
NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. Alleging gender bias and continued `harassment', a Joint Secretary in the Legislative Department of the Union Law Ministry has sought the Government's permission to sue the Secretary of the Department for remedy.
For Mrs. Sushma Jain, (at present posted at the Official Languages wing of the Legislative department), the Government slogan that 2001 is the year ``for empowerment of women'' seems to be only on paper.
In her letter to the Union Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley (copies have been sent to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and the Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani), Mrs. Sushma said ``I am the only female among 18-19 Joint Secretaries in the Ministry and I am being harassed, discriminated for no fault of mine except that I am a female''.
Mrs. Jain told The Hindu that ``ever since Mr. S.C. Jain took over as Secretary of the Legislative Department, he started harassing me without any obvious reason. Though I sent several representations to the higher authorities in this regard, no attention was paid to my grievances. It is in these circumstances that I have sought the Government's permission to sue Mr. Jain''.
She said she was the only Joint Secretary with 25 years of experience in the `Group A' service in the department but was not considered for appointment as Additional Secretary.
The Central Administrative Tribunal gave her relief holding that ``the applicant not only had the right to be considered but should actually have been considered by the search-cum-selection committee'' and asked the Government to consider her claim. But the Government moved the Delhi High Court and sought a stay of the tribunal's order till the next date of hearing in January 2002. In the meanwhile Mrs. Jain was shifted to the present post.
Even as the matter is pending, she has alleged that Mr. S.C. Jain is trying to spoil her `C.R'. (confidential report) for 2000-2001.
When she approached the National Commission for Women, the Commission forwarded her petition to the Law Ministry, which replied that as the matter was pending in court, any decision would depend on the court verdict.
Giving instances of her harassment, Mrs. Jain requested the Law Minister to grant her permission to go to court to seek redressal for ``mental tension and gender-biased harassment by Mr. S.C. Jain''.
She said ``as no reply has been sent to me even after 15 days of the letter, I have decided to initiate legal proceedings against Mr. Jain``.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
National
|
