Pratibha murder: SC turns down Mittal plea

CMN Bureau

NEW DELHI,INDIA: Nasscom chief may face prosecution for violating a Karnataka government order banning employment of women and young persons in night shift.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of Som Mittal, Nasscom chief and former-managing director of Hewlett Packard Global Soft Ltd, praying for the quashing of First Information Report filed against him by the Karnataka government in connection with the rape and murder of an HP BPO employee.

The FIR lodged by the Karnataka police accused him of violating an order of 2002, which seeks to regulate the employment of young men and women in night shifts.

The specific incident pertains to the infamous rape and murder of Pratibha Srikanth Murthy on the night of December 13, 2005. Mittal was then the head of Hewlett Packard Global Soft Limited.

He had then challenged the FIR in the Karnataka High Court, which rejected it.

Dismissing Mittal’s plea, the SC bench consisting of Justice Sema and Justice Markandey Katju directed the trial court to decide the case expeditiously.

“The trial court will decide the maintainability of the compliant against Mittal at the time of consideration of the charge after hearing the parties,” the bench observed.

“The SC had deprecated the interference by the High Courts in exercise of its powers under section 482 in a routine manner and held that it should be exercised sparingly,” Justice Sema said in her order.

Justice Sema rejected the argument of Mittal's counsel that the High Court, despite having the power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to review the maintainability of a criminal case, had refused to exercise it.

However, Justice Katju agreed with the continuance of the case against Mittal, but differed with Justice Sema's perception that the High Courts should exercise the power in rarest of rare cases.

"In the matter concerning the dismissal of the petition filed by Som Mittal before the Supreme Court, we are yet to receive the copy of the written order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. We will be in a position to provide our comments after we receive and peruse the order," HP said in a press statement.

“I have not yet seen the judgement of the Supreme Court on the case regarding the unfortunate murder of an employee of HP Global Soft in 2005 and, therefore, cannot comment on it. Needless to say, we have full faith in the Indian judicial system, which is acknowledged to be fair and independent.

"As far as NASSCOM is concerned, we make all efforts – in collaboration with the IT-BPO industry – to continuously review and further strengthen the processes that ensure the safety of all employees in the industry. While the number of unfortunate incidents involving IT-BPO employees have been proportionately far less than those affecting other citizens, for us even a single incident is one too many. We will continue to work with the government and the law enforcement agencies – who have the primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of all citizens – to see that employees in this industry are (and feel) safe and secure," Mittal addded.

The Karnataka Government ban order of 2002 was with a caveat that if the company decides to put women in night shift, they should provide transport facility to office and back home and also security during the travel.

It was alleged that though the BPO provided the transport facility, it had not made provision for a security staff in the vehicle.

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