High Court rebukes JNU over safety of women

Victims accused prof of sexual abuse

NEW DELHI: 23/10/2017: for index: A view of JNU Administrative Block , in New Delhi on Monday Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rebuked the Jawaharlal Nehru University for not taking constructive steps to provide a safe working environment for women who have levelled sexual harassment charges against a professor.

“I thought you were taking constructive measures to provide a safe environment to them. You [JNU] said on the last date that you were setting up a fact-finding committee which will hear them. I see a complete turnaround as you are saying you do not know who the eight students are and do not call them [to be heard before the committee],” Justice Rajiv Shakdher said.

He asked JNU, “Do you have the power to sanitise the environment?”

The observation by the court came after it perused a report of the fact-finding committee set up by JNU to probe the alleged misconduct by the professor.

‘No findings’

The court also said the report contained no findings and the panel has not even called the eight complainants or Prof. Atul Kumar Johri. The court observed that it had expected the university to put in place a mechanism to provide a safe environment for the women, but the committee’s report was silent on the issue.

JNU, in its defence, said the panel cannot go into the issues of alleged misconduct by the professor or complaints of sexual harassment as these aspects will be examined by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) according to the Central Civil Services Rules. It claimed the ICC was unable to take up either of the two aspects as the complainants refused to appear before it.