Another definition is the workplace; we might think workplace must be at the premises you know of that organization or that establishment, but they also say in the course of work, ah ok. So, the employer, again workplaces later, but employer also we might think that the employer might be the top brass of the organization, is not it? Generally, employer, the managing director, chairperson, we would think that, but what they say, department also, undertaking, institution, office, branch manager of the branch can fall as an employer, you know.

So, it is a very broader connotation. Then respondent, now see, you know this is a very interesting thing; the law, as I told you, is sexual harassment of women at the workplace. It is specific, but the way the word respondent is defined, a person, it does not say a man. Respondent is a person against whom a complaint is made, but the way the definition is, it is the language is gender neutral. The language is a person against whom the aggrieved woman has made a complaint.

So, it gives a scope for people to say that it is written a person; that person can be a woman also, is not it? So, the respondent, suppose if a case, say suppose now this issue about LGBT is there, lesbian, bisexual woman having sex with men. So, if a woman is luring another woman, she can be a respondent; a woman can be a respondent considering, you know, the language of the law itself, it says the word a person, it does not say a man against whom a complaint is made.

Workplace, as I told you, which will be premises within physically and also outside the premises if it is any place visited by the employee during the course of employment. So, it can be like at a hotel, or it can be outside anywhere, even it can be an excursion of the company, a picnic, a trip in the course of work it has happened, and including transportation, you know. This case was there last year which came in the news, like Pune being an ITCT, there was a woman employee who was from North India, and she had joined an IT company in Pune, and she was being given that facility of dropping back to her home from office, and in that particular case what happened, like there were other woman employees, like after office hours they were all dropped, and this one particular woman, she was the last person to be dropped, and the driver took advantage of the situation. He took through her route which she was sensing that it is not the normal route, and he took advantage and he raped her.

So, it is after that case all the IT companies, you know, you have the NASCOM which is like a body governing them, they have made it mandatory that the last person, if somebody has to be dropped, a woman employee, there has to be a security guard which was not there in the earlier rule. So, while dropping off, if the last person is to be dropped, a woman, there has to be another person other than the driver; there was nobody there in the vehicle. So, you know, it is the employee's responsibility, it is the employer's responsibility, the company to ensure that all employees are safe. So, even transportation will be covered, you know. So, we are clear on these terms because later on, you know, these things will be applicable.

So, third-party harassment, nowadays in the global employees, you have these contractual laborers, contractual employees. So, the contractual, so there can be a case where a man from the company has misbehaved with a woman contractor, that becomes a case for sexual harassment at work because, you know, the man is implicated and the argument, you know, like you might say. So, it is now obligatory even for that contractual organization to have a complaints mechanism, not just of your company, you know. So, that is how, you know, it is not clearly written third-party harassment, how will you handle and all that. But you will have to go with the spirit of law and see how it is applicable, you know, and the recourse is what, you know, the woman should have the option where she should go.

For example, a third-party harassment is such that one employee has gone to another organization's place and she is sexually abused or sexually harassed, where should she go? The law says that it should be left to her; she might go to her own organization having an internal complaints mechanism, or she can go to the harasser's organization which is different, or it can be a dealership organization which is another third-party organization. So, because it is mandatory, ten employees or more than ten employees, you need to have a committee which will come later.