Kolkata: Calcutta High Court has decided that calling women as sweet baby is not sexual harassment and it is not appropriate to file a complaint against someone for that.
Even though many laws have been enacted to prevent sexual crimes against women, such crimes are still happening. From a 2-month-old baby girl to an 80-year-old woman, we can see incidents of rape and murder in the news every day.
To avoid this, government to private companies have set up separate committees to investigate sexual harassment complaints. However, despite taking various measures, women could not completely escape from sexual exploitation. Most working women are sexually harassed by their male superiors.
In that regard, a woman who has joined the Indian Navy for training filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court alleging that her superior officer always calls her sweet baby and because he does not stop saying it no matter how many times, the woman should file a sexual harassment case against her.
The petition came up for hearing yesterday before Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. After listening to the arguments of both sides, the judge said, “Calling with words like baby or sweety does not come under sexual harassment. It is inappropriate for the committees of the companies to call it sexual harassment. In today’s society, all such words can be used normally.
There is no need to color these words sexually. “If you file a complaint of sexual harassment, it will be against the laws that protect women. At the same time, even after the concerned woman has said on WhatsApp that she is not comfortable using such words, it should not be countered,” he said.
Earlier, the accused naval officer had said that he did not use the word sweet baby in a sexual manner, and that he had not used the term since then when the woman told him that she did not like it. After hearing these arguments, the judge dismissed the case.
