Bombay High Court Penalizes Woman ₹25 Lakh For Threatening To File Fake Molestation Case

Women in India often face harassment and are victims of misogyny. However, ever since gender protection laws have been put in place, few women on occasion have chosen to take advantage of them to coax or even blackmail men into submission. When Neha Gandhir, an entrepreneur from Haryana did precisely this; the Bombay High Court was in no mood to forgive!

Neha and her husband have been slammed with a fine of Rs 25 lakh by the Bombay High Court. The charge is a misuse of gender protection laws when Gandhir allegedly threatened to file a false molestation case.

Gandhir is the proprietor of Feel Good India Company based in Haryana. Initially, a case was filed by Mumbai-based Sapat Company against Feel Good for infringing on their trademark name for a cough syrup. Soon after, the High Court restrained Gandhir’s company from infringing the copyright on December 21, 2018.

The judge appointed a court receiver to seize goods from their factories. However, the confrontation took place on January 4, when the court receiver and representatives of Sapat Company tried to video-record loading of goods into a tempo. That is when Neha allegedly threatened to file a false molestation case against the court receiver!

“Gandhir tried to snatch away his phone, asked him to delete what was video-graphed and used the most easily available weapon to an unscrupulous and dishonest woman, when her dishonesty is exposed, by threatening them that she will level false allegations of molestation against them,” the court observed.

“Time and again, it is noted with distress, that a socially enabling piece of legislation, is being grossly misused with impunity, by the very gender for whose empowerment it has been enacted, leaving the male/s facing grossly wrong and derogatory charges, which they have to thereafter defend themselves against,” explained the judge.

“Such gross and patent misuse of a socially enabling piece of legislation has to be sternly condemned by the Courts and dealt with a very stern hand,” said Justice S Kathawalla.

According to TOI, Gandhir’s attorneys asked for leniency because she was a young entrepreneur with two children. She said the “use of the word ‘molestation’ was ‘unintended in spirit’ and was as such used as a ‘term of art’ and was said in a state of great fear and apprehension”.

However, the HC refused to accept the explanation. Here’s what they had to say on the matter-

“If such abhorrent behaviour is left unpunished, by showing compassion to a person who knowingly, grossly abuses the process of law, and thereafter attempts to justify the same by saying that she did it in a fit of rage, the court will send out a wrong message to the general public,” said the judge.

“Such conduct may also deter court officials from executing orders against women,” rightly said the judge.

Indeed, no form of harassment should go unpunished, no matter the gender of the perpetrator!