The ruling marks a departure from the Supreme Court's recent interpretation of the law by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha Malik. In a 2025 judgment, the Supreme Court held that workplace harassment could include gender-based discrimination and the creation of a hostile work environment, emphasising that such conduct could stem from power and domination rather than sexual desire. The FCC disagreed with that interpretation, holding that the statutory definition in Section 2(h) required the element of sexual harassment for conduct to become actionable before the ombudsperson. The court observed that any misconduct or behaviour unbecoming of an employee towards another employee or an employer could generically be classified as harassment, but would not, by itself, be actionable under the 2010 Act unless the conduct was demonstrated to be sexual in nature. It held that grave or otherwise actionable misconduct could have serious consequences but did not fall within the statutory definition of harassment unless it had a sexual origin.