1.

Rashika is a famous journalist and is currently the head editor for a weekly magazine,
Engage. She completed her Masters in mass communication & journalism from a
distinguished university (Indus school of mass communication and Journalism - ISMJ) in
Indus in 2012.
2. Mr. Romesh is an editor of a monthly magazine titled Vocals published by Herald. Herald
is one of the top print media houses, headquartered in Delta (capital of Indus).
3. Mr. Romesh was a guest faculty in Rashika's institute and often moderated classes for her
semester. Rashika patronized the credentials of Mr. Romesh and wanted to follow in his
footsteps.
4. In her final semester, Rashika was recruited by the Herald in the recruitment drive of the
college.
5. She joined Herald in 2012 and was assigned to work in Romesh's team as an assistant sub-
editor. It was a dream come true for her to work under someone whom she idolized. While
working with Romesh, Rashika picked up on journalism's nuances and received positive
feedback on her work ethics.
6. She quickly caught the eye of Romesh, who started looking at her as his protege. In 2010
(after two years in an organization), she was given an out of turn promotion to Associate
Editor based on feedback from Romesh.
7. For the next couple of years, she continued to work closely with him and was appraised
regularly. She quickly became one of the faces of Vocals.
8. On new years eve in 2018, a party was organised by the firm. At the party, suddenly,
Romesh came towards Rashika and planted a kiss on her cheeks. He took out a gift pack
from his handbag and offered the same to Rashika stating, "I am giving you a small
Tajmahal statue as a new year gift. Please accept it". Rashika saw the gift pack and read
the inscription on it: "Tajmahal presented by Shahjahan(Romesh) to Mumtaj
(Rashika)with a lot of love". Rashika felt uncomfortable as she became the centre of the
party. She humbly declined the present, stating that it is inappropriate for her to accept it.
This infuriated Romesh and he left the party, saying that he made Rashika what she is.
9. Two weeks later, the leadership shifted Rishika to a different vertical of organisation
stating professional reasons. Rashika felt that the decision was colored because she refused
to accept Romesh's gift and his advances..
10. She filed a complaint with ICC. ICC was constituted. The Internal Committee proceeded
with the inquiry into the sexual misconduct allegation against Romesh under the service
rules applicable to the respondent. Romesh contested that his gesture of gift was to
appreciate his co-worker and he did not intend to harass her. He also commented that he
has no role to play in Rashika’s transfer to different vertical. ICC's finding concluded that
Romesh was not guilty of sexual misconduct.
11. Rashika approached the leadership of Herald and requested transfer to a different office
branch. She was transferred to a different branch after two months.
12. After3 years of the incident, she left the organization in 2021, stating a hostile work
environment.
13. Inthe wake of the #metoo movement in 2022, Rashika decided to go public with her
sexual harassment incident and shared it in multiple social media portals. After receiving
an empathetic response, she decided to act on it and filed a petition under Art. 226 in Delta
HC against ICC finding, Herald and Romesh under SHW (Sexual Harassment at
Workplace Act, 2013) and other relevant provisions of IPC. The Delta HC decided in
favor of respondents stating that appellate jurisdiction is not permissible after express time
limitation in SHW.
14. The judgment gathered a lot of media attention and many women (around 30) came
forward with their own sexual harassment stories against Romesh during their stint with
Vocals in social media. Thread #IndianWeinstein became popular. Romesh contested that
his image is tarnished, and in spite of getting a clean chit from HC, he is getting exploited.
He separately initiated criminal defamation suit against Rashika in lower court.
15. Aggrieved with the decision of HC, Rashika knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court
through SLP. On a related note, PIL was filed by one gender activist, Ms. Sehgal. In her
petition, she prayed that the court should direct law-enforcement agencies to take suo motu
action on the matter, record the statements of complainants and register first information
reports under relevant sections of the POSH and IPC vis-a-vis 30 women who shared
their sexual harassment incident with Romesh. Sehgal also prayed for setting up fast-track
courts to be set up to hear such cases.
16. ApexCourt clubbed the matter together and listed the matter for hearing in the wake of the
aforementioned SLP and PIL.
Issue 1- whether the PIL is maintainable or not
Issue 1 whether Romesh is liable under the provisions of IPC and SHW(Sexual
Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013)

The laws, hierarchy, precedents and International obligations and hierarchy of courts as to
their jurisdiction and powers in Indus is same as that are pari materia to those applicable in
India.
Counsel need to prepare arguments on behalf of the petitioner and the respondent.