- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A court in the southern Indian state of Kerala recently said while granting anticipatory bail to a 70-something man accused in a sexual harassment case that a case of “sexual harassment will not prima facie stand when the complainant was wearing a dress that was sexually provocative”.
According to a report in Live Law, the Kozhikode Sessions Court in Kerala said this while hearing the bail plea of Civic Chandran, a 74-year-old social activist and author who was accused of sexually harassing a young woman.
The lawyer of the accused, who is physically challenged, produced photographs of the woman along with the bail plea. The court then observed, “The photographs produced along with the bail application by the accused would reveal that the defacto complainant herself is exposing to dresses which are having some sexual provocative one. So Section 354A will not prima facie stand against the accused.”
It also said that being physically disabled, the accused could not have applied force on the woman.
Citing Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, the court said that it is very clear that there must be an intention on part of the accused to outrage a woman’s modesty.
“In order to attract this Section, there must be a physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures. There must be a demand or request for sexual favours. There must be sexually coloured remarks,” it said.
The alleged incident took place in February 2020 at Kozhikode’s Nandi beach where a camp was convened. The prosecution alleged that Chandran outraged the modesty of the woman, a writer, and the police had filed a case against the accused. The latter refuted the claims saying it was a false case made against him.
