MADURAI
Allowing the petition filed by a woman, who was a student of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli, alleging that she was sexual harassed by an Assistant Professor in 2015, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed Tirunelveli police to register a complaint and conduct an investigation.
The woman, in her petition, alleged that Assistant Professor Vinod Vincent Rajesh of History Department had sexually harassed girl students. Following a complaint filed by the woman and a some other students, a committee was constituted by the university to look into the charges and he was placed under suspension.
The committee found him guilty and the Syndicate passed a resolution accepting the report of the committee. However, he was reinstated later. The period of his suspension was treated as punishment and two increments with cumulative effect were stopped.
Rajesh was also warned not to repeat such act in the future, the petitioner said. However, the action of the university had been insufficient. It had failed to forward the complaint to the jurisdictional police, the woman said.
Section 11 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, mandated that the local committee should, if prima facie case existed, forward the complaint to the police.
Justice G.R. Swaminathan directed the Registrar of the university to forward the complaint along with committee’s report to the police. Tirunelveli Police should register an FIR on the complaint and conclude the investigation within three months, the court said.
