• Notification Date: 22-11-2022
• Notification No: N/A

GST Officer arrested in Sexual Harassment Case

S Ravi Selvan, Commissioner of GST and Central Excise from Chennai has been arrested in a case of sexual harassment. But the Madras High Court has stayed all further proceedings pursuant to the complaint against him, which offers him some relief for the time being.    

The fourth respondent, lodging the sexual harassment complaint against the GST Commissioner, is an IRS officer. The case has been lodged on 24.05.2022. The petitioner and Principal Commissioner of Customs has been accused of sexually harassing the IRS Officer. But the accused has denied the accusation and allegations. Moreover, he has accused the complainant of filing a motivated complaint against him. 

A bench of Madras HC judges, comprising Justice Paresh Upadhyay and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy granted the injunction. The ruling of the bench entertained an appeal from Ravi and has challenged the orders of a single judge. According to the statement of the bench, they find prima facie that there is substance in the grievances voiced by the writ petitioner against the respondents. The judges feel that the accused needs to be protected. Thus, they have granted the interim that was requested. The bench has ordered that during pendency of this appeal, all proceedings pursuant to the complaint of the woman IRS officer, dated May 24 this year, shall remain stayed.  

According to the complaint, the first instance of sexual harassment took place in December of 2020. But Ravi has denied any such allegations made by the petitioner. In a letter to the chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, he mentioned that it was a motivated complaint filed by the complainant. He added that the female officer did this to evade proceedings of misconduct that he had initiated against her in an alleged tax evasion case from 2019. An Internal Committee looked into the complaint of sexual harassment. In July, Ravi had been suspended by the Union Ministry of Finance.