Seven students of Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts run by the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai have filed a joint writ petition in the Madras High Court for the formulation of a proper safety policy and a robust redressal mechanism to deal with sexual and other kinds of harassment at the institution.
The students have revealed their identities to the court in a sealed cover and requested it to let them remain anonymous to the outside world to avoid undue interference in the evaluation of their academic performance and the discriminatory or hostile treatment that they might face from the institution for filing the case.
Their writ petition has been listed for admission before Justice M. Dhandapani on April 17. Apart from the main prayer for framing a proper safety policy, the petitioners had also sought multiple interim reliefs which included reconstitution of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) with student and parent representatives.
In an affidavit filed through advocates Anna Mathew and S. Devika, the first petitioner said, the foundation was a statutory body incorporated under the Kalakshetra Foundation Act of 1994 and functioning under the Union Ministry of Culture. It was an autonomous institution of national importance with a separate governing board.
One of the educational institutions run by the foundation was the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts which offers courses in Bharatnatyam, Carnatic music, and fine arts. The petitioners cited recent protests complaining about present and past students having been subjected to sexual harassment by a few faculty members.
They accused the foundation and its director Revathi Ramachandran, who had been arrayed as one of the respondents by name, of having failed to provide a safe environment for the students. The institution’s failure to take action even after receipt of complaints was deliberate and smacked of mala fide intentions, the petitioners alleged.
They further claimed that the institution had miserably failed to comply with the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013 and Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act of 1998.
No workshops or sensitisation programmes were conducted on the subject, no capacity building programmes were held for members of ICC and no placards were placed in prominent places on the campus encouraging victims to report sexual abuse, advances and inuendos to the authorities concerned, the petitioners said.
The interim reliefs sought by the petitioners included a restraint order against the foundation injuncting it from subjecting any of the complainants, their representatives, students or faculty members (who spoke at the January 3 sensitization meeting of the ICC) to adverse action, intimidation or harassment.
Urging the Court to also order reconstitution of the ICC with student and parent representatives, the petitioners insisted that neither Ms. Ramachandran nor the previous members of the committee should be made part of the new committee. They also sought a direction to suspend the faculty members facing charges of sexual harassment.
The faculty members should not be allowed to enter the campus or interact with the students in any manner until the completion of the ICC inquiry and also the criminal investigation. Further, the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women should be ordered to submit a copy of its inquiry report before the Court, the petitioners pleaded.
Stating that the Commission had visited the campus on March 31 for an independent inquiry, they were confident that its report would shed more light on the issue.
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