The Delhi High Court has let off Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental lightly in a contempt of court case when the university informed the Court that it had inadvertently informed Professor Bidyut Chakrabarty of the Political Department that it was still keeping alive two memorandums whereby he was held guilty of sexual harassment and debarred from holding any administrative post for three years on that basis.
A Division Bench of the High Court had in May last year quashed the two memorandums on a petition filed by Prof. Chakrabarty challenging them.
Prof. Chakrabarty had received information about the university still putting reliance on the two memorandums despite their quashing by the Court in reply to an application filed by him under the RTI Act.
Following the receipt of the information, Prof. Chakrabarty filed a contempt petition against Prof. Pental.
The university had earlier informed the petitioner in reply to the contempt petition that once the two memorandums had been quashed, no further action against him would be taken.
Counsel for the university further informed the Court that the person who replied to the RTI query had not seen the judgment.
Following the admission of the faux pas by the university, the Court disposed of the petition saying no further order was required to be passed.
While disposing of the petition, Justice G. S. Sistani said the university, as promised to the Court, shall within a week take steps to inform the Department concerned about setting aside of the two memorandums.
