Mere Touching Of Hand Not 'Criminal Force': Gauhati High Court Quashes Sexual Harassment Case Against IIT Professor

The Gauhati High Court recently quashed the sexual harassment case registered against an IIT Professor for allegedly touching the hands of a woman who had approached him seeking mentorship for her startup idea.

Justice Sanjeev Kumar Sharma noted that mere 'touching' of hands does not satisfy the definition of 'force' to attract the offence of Outraging woman's modesty by assault or use of criminal force under Section 354 IPC.

The bench, while clarifying the scope of “force” defined under Section 349 IPC, observed, “From a close reading of the aforesaid provision, it appears that in order for the action to qualify as force, it is necessary that the motion, change of motion or cessation of motion has to be caused to the person as a whole and not merely to any part of his body. In other words, unless and until the person has been forced to move or move in a direction different from which he was moving or forced to stop from moving if he was already moving, a person cannot be said to use force to another. Mere touching would not or could not be brought in within the ambit of the definition of force as defined under Section 349 IPC.”

“Therefore, unless the definition of force is satisfied, the question of use of criminal force as defined under Section 350 would naturally not arise,” Justice Sharma added.

Further, while expounding on Section 351 IPC, which defines Assault, Justice Sharma noted, “Therefore, from the above definition, any gesture or preparation which is short of actual physical contact with the victim is required. When actual contact takes place, the action goes out of the ambit of the definition of assault.”

The Court also noted that the Professor was subjected to a full departmental enquiry with the participation of the complainant whereafter the allegations made against him were found to be baseless and it appeared that the complainant has sought to lodge the FIR due to the unfavourable result in the departmental proceedings, with a view to wreck vengeance.

Accordingly, the Court quashed the criminal proceedings pending against him.

Case Name: Dr. Vimal Katiyar v. State of Assam & Anr.

Case Number: Crl. Petition No. 362 of 2024

Click Here To Read Judgement