The Supreme Court on Friday (November 28, 2025) sought response from the Center and others on a petition alleging that female sanitation workers at Maharishi Dayanand University in Haryana were asked to prove that they were menstruating by showing photographs of their private parts.
The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan has issued notice to the Center and others. Justice Nagarathna said, ‘This reflects the mentality. Leave is being given for menstruation in Karnataka. After reading this I wondered whether they would ask for proof to grant leave.
The court said, ‘This reflects the mentality of the people. If any heavy work could not be done due to his absence, someone else could have been deployed. We hope that something good will come from this petition. During the hearing, President of ‘Supreme Court Bar Association’ (SCBA) and senior advocate Vikas Singh said that this is a serious criminal case and it needs attention.
Now December 15 has been fixed for the next hearing on the petition. In the petition, a request has been made to direct the Center and Haryana to conduct a detailed investigation into the incident. The bar body has also sought guidelines to ensure that the right to health, dignity, physical autonomy and privacy of women and girls during menstruation are not violated.
Police said that a case of sexual harassment was registered on October 31 against three people associated with Maharishi Dayanand University. It is alleged that he had asked female sanitation workers to prove that they were menstruating by showing photographs of their private parts.
The university had said in a statement that it has suspended two supervisors, who were appointed on contract through Haryana Skill Employment Corporation Limited, and has ordered an internal inquiry into the incident.
The incident occurred on October 26, hours before Haryana Governor Asim Kumar Ghosh was to visit the university campus. In their complaint to the university administration, three female sanitation workers alleged that despite informing them that they were unwell, two supervisors first forced them to clean the campus and then asked them to prove that they were menstruating.
A sanitation worker, who claims to have been working at the university for 11 years, alleged, ‘We told them that we cannot work fast because we are unwell due to menstruation, but they asked us to show photographs of our private parts to prove it. When we refused, we were abused and threatened with dismissal.
The women alleged that the supervisors told them that they were following the orders of Assistant Registrar Shyam Sundar. Sundar has denied giving any such instructions to the supervisors. The officer in-charge of PGIMS police station said that an FIR has been registered on charges of criminal intimidation, sexual harassment, outraging the modesty of a woman and using criminal force on a woman.