Madras High Court asks the state to take measures to protect the athletes and take immediate action against the perpetrators

Judge KK Ramakrishnan observed that according to a report published by Ungender titled 'Sexual Harassment in Sports in India', sexual harassment has reached an all-time high. The court observed that appropriate action must be taken against the perpetrators of such crimes. Observing that an expeditious law was required to address such issues, the court directed the Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu to look into the issue of protection of women sportspersons from sexual harassment in the interest of sports education and transparent participation of women in sports.

“This Court is of the view that it must act expeditiously and punish severely the person found guilty of sexual harassment of women sportspersons. The perpetrators of the said crimes must also be punished appropriately and to take prompt action, a new form of measure in the form of legislation is required. Therefore, this Court directs the Chief Secretary, Government of Tamilnadu to take up the issue of protection of women sportspersons from sexual harassment in the interest of sports education and transparent participation of women in sports within six months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.,” the court said.

The court also ordered the state government to allow parents or guardians of girls participating in a state competition to accompany them at the state's expense to prevent harassment.

“Therefore, in the interest of justice and also for achieving social justice, this Court issues directions to the State Government to accommodate either the parents or the guardian of the girl child during the sports competition at the State's expense to avoid sexual harassment by the coaches and organisers of the competition.“, the court ordered.

The court found that female athletes were often openly solicited for sexual intercourse, caressed, squeezed, groped, subjected to abusive comments, sent abusive texts and emails, raped and attempted rape. In many cases, the court found, the athletes were victims of contract terminations due to lack of discipline, withdrawal of duties or transfer due to sport-related sanctions, isolation, change of duties, etc. The court found that such incidents would affect the physical and mental health of the athlete and would also affect her performance.

The court made these observations in an appeal filed by a physical education teacher who was convicted under Section 10 read with Section 9(f) of the POCSO Act and Section 363 of the IPC for sexually abusing a Class 12 student whom he had accompanied to a state-level Kabbadi tournament.

The prosecution case was that the accused (teacher) after taking the victim to Rajapalayam, changed his plans and instead of staying at his relatives' house as previously agreed, he took the victim to a hostel. In the hostel, the accused committed sexual abuse on the victim and invited her to share the bed with him. The victim took a mobile phone and ran to the toilet where she locked herself and called one of her relatives who informed the police. The police arrived at the hostel after which the victim came out of the toilet. Thus, a case was registered and the accused was convicted after trial.

During the appeal, it was contended that Section 9(f) of the POCSO was not satisfied as the alleged incident did not take place in the institution but in a hostel. However, the court rejected this contention and observed that no restrictive meaning should be given to the word 'establishment' in this section. The court observed that in the instant case, there was a student-teacher relationship between the victim and the appellant and the victim had accompanied the appellant only because he was her teacher. Therefore, the court held that Section 9(f) was applicable to the instant case.

The complainant also argued that the documents relied upon by the prosecution were not sufficient to prove the age of the victim. However, the court found that the prosecution had produced the victim's SSLC certificate which was sufficient proof of the victim's age. The court also found that this was confirmed by the school principal.

The court also found that the accused's decision not to stay at his relatives' house but instead to stay at the lodge was strong evidence of his guilt in sexually assaulting the victim. Although the accused also raised other arguments, the court rejected all objections.

The court observed that in the instant case, the victim's father had already died and her mother had grown up in a family belonging to the Scheduled Caste community. The court observed that the complainant, who was a teacher, was expected to have high morals and parental interaction with the child but instead had completely broken the trust by sexually assaulting her.

The court observed that after the incident, the girl had stopped her education and could not even participate in the selection of the national team. Since the girl's career had to be ended due to the humiliation caused by the complainant, the court found it appropriate to increase the compensation amount from Rs.50,000 to Rs.500,000.

The court also dismissed the appeal and ordered the Victims Compensation Authority to award the victim increased compensation within four weeks of the order.

Legal counsel for the complainant: Mr. V. Kathirvelu, Senior Counsel for Mr. K. Prabhu