ICC order can be challenged before AFT: SC relief to Navy Commander in sexual harassment case

The Supreme Court recently directed that Armed Forces Tribunal to adjudicate afresh the appeal filed by an Indian Navy Commander against the Internal Complaints Committee's (ICC) decision in a sexual harassment complaint made against him. Court has said that an ICC order can be challenged before the AFT.

In 2024, the Principal Medical Officer had written to the Commanding Officer, INS Shakti alleging that the appellant, during the course of his deployment, committed acts of sexual harassment against her on different occasions.

An Internal Complaints Committee (“ICC”) was constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) which recommended that appropriate action may be initiated against the Commander. Accordingly the Commander was called upon to to show cause within ten days as to, whether, his services should not be terminated in terms of Regulation 216 of the Regulations for the Navy Part-II (Statutory) read with Section 15(2) of the Navy Act, 1957.

This led to the Commander filed an appeal before the Armed Forces Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi. As the AFT dismissed the appeal, a writ was filed before the Delhi High Court which also came to be dismissed.

In the instant case Supreme Court said the issue was that the power to terminate the services of an officer by invoking sub-section (2) of Regulation 216 of the Regulations on the one hand and the right of a person who has been charged with serious and grave misconduct by the ICC to assail the correctness of the said report and its findings by way of an appeal.

"Section 14 of the AFT Act, 2007 when read in juxtaposition with Section 18 of the POSH Act, we find that the appellant herein had rightly approached the Tribunal so as to assail the report as well as the recommendations of the ICC. The Tribunal ought to have considered the correctness of the said report in accordance with law. The Show Cause Notice dated 05.03.2025 was premised on the basis of the recommendations of the ICC. In the circumstances, the Show Cause Notice was not simply a preliminary notice as such, it was a notice relatable directly to the report and the recommendations of the ICC which were a subject matter of challenge before the Tribunal", a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Court noted High Court was not right in holding that the appellant had no right under Section 18 of the POSH Act. "We find that the Tribunal has not adjudicated the appeal filed by the Tribunal in terms of the Section 18 of the POSH Act read with Section 14 of the AFT Act, 2007 but has primarily proceeded on the basis that what was in issue was essentially the Show Cause Notice dated 05.03.2025 and this was at a preliminary stage of the proceedings, whereas the appeal under Section 18 of POSH Act was the subject matter of OA No.1024 of 2025".

Consequently, the matter was remanded to the Tribunal for afresh adjudication.

Case Title: 42605-B CDR YOGESH MAHLA VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & OTHERS

Bench: Justices Nagarathna and Bhuyan

Order Date: January 20, 2026