#MeToo reaches Delhi high court now

New Delhi: An issue relating to #MeToo campaign reached the Delhi High Court on Thursday with some persons facing accusations of sexual harassment seeking to restrain the accuser from airing her alleged ordeal on social media or any other platform.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V.K. Rao directed both sides to refrain from making comments on the issue or disclosing identities of those involved on the social media.

The court also directed them not to give interviews to media organisations regarding the inter-se dispute and restrained any third party from broadcasting on social media their opinion on the issue.

The order came on an application moved by the private persons against whom the woman had levelled allegations of sexual harassment.

The application contended that the woman was disclosing identities of persons involved in the matter despite a high court order to the contrary. The woman, a journalist, had contended that she was sexually harassed while working with an online news portal. When her complaint of sexual harassment was rejected by the portal's internal complaints committee, she had last year moved the high court which had ordered that identities of all persons involved in the matter be kept confidential. Now, during the #MeToo movement, she took to  Facebook.