NUJS Kolkata’s staff sexual harassment victim on Friday accused the law school’s internal complaints committee (ICC) of bias after the ICC expressed its displeasure at her lodging a criminal complaint against the accused, as well as at media coverage of the issue, reported the Calcutta Telegraph.
At a 20 August hearing of the victim’s internal complaint – the first in the 70 days since she had lodged her complaint internally at the law school – the ICC allegedly asked her repeatedly why she had lodged a police complaint despite filing a complaint with the university.
The ICC allegedly told the woman that the parallel police investigation would further delay the institution’s probe since the accused was unable to come out of hiding and depose before the in-house committee because of the First Information Report (FIR) against him.
According to the police, the accused has been absconding since a Barasat court rejected his plea for anticipatory bail.
The victim also alleged that the ICC questioned her on why reports highlighting her plight had appeared in the media and whether she didn’t trust the ICC to do its job.
Sources at the law school told the newspaper that they saw the ICC’s stance as a “pressure tactic” to force the victim to withdraw her FIR and settle the matter “across the table”.
The victim had first filed her complaint on 12 June, allegedly over a year after informally bringing the issue to NUJS vice chancellor Ishwara Bhatt’s notice. After no internal hearing in her complaint at the law school for 43 days, she filed a criminal complaint at the Bidhannagar police station in Kolkata against the accused. The law school suspended the accused on 10 August, for non-cooperation in the ICC”s inquiry against him.
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Note: This is not an anti-NUJS comment.
I have only asked to stop following this news because it is both immature and artificial - none has a single piece of evidence in the media? And by happens everywhere, i mean exactly that - fake cases?
I have gained plenty of it, but you can try going to some of the backward states and get a larger picture instead of judging people around sitting on a cozy chair in a AC room?
Wishes
And if it is a fake case, as you allege, why doesn't the accused face the charges and clear his name both in court and before the committee?
I'm afraid your mindset, if it is indeed honestly held, is the main reason that sexual harassment in the workplace (and arguably rape too) are such huge problems with few signs of improvement...
Excellent response Kian. Well said
Quoting kianganz:
2. Ditto for internal committee and a complaint. Once a complaint is made, a committee has to be set up.
3. I am ex-NUJS and have known both the accused and the complainant in their professional capacities. I am given to understand that this is not such an open-and-shut case.
4. Don't be naive. You would have been absconding if a court denied you anticipatory bail and you ran the very real risk of facing arrest the moment you report to work. You must know other men who have done the same when faced with trumped-up complaints of domestic violence.
5. NUJS has a lot of problems - I am not denying that - but I don't quite see the point in turning this into a media trial. Either way, the lives of both, as it stood prior to these allegations, is pretty much over. Don't quite see the point of making a circus out of it.
Dear Guest
I understand that you are one of the ex-NUJS. So you kinow what all happened in NUJS from Year 2008 October onwards. You also might be knowing on the Financial scam by M.P. Singh.
Quoting your words " Once a complaint is made, a committee has to be set up." Do you know that on 8th May 2010 EC members of NUJS asked for a UNIVERSITY REVIEW COMMISSION" after a complaing was logged on the illegal functioning on NUJS.
If Chancellor of NUJS , former CJI do not follow the resolution of the EC and do not form the UNIVERSITY REVIEW COMMISSION then what better we can expect from Authority of NUJS ?
Not only that I hope you also know the fraud case that has happened in NUJS by false submission by NUJS to High Court of Calcutta.
@ 3 and 3.1.1 – The illogical statements clearly speaks volumes about the mindset and IQ level of the person/s making the comments! I would not even care to dignify such poor questions with an answer. I also do not want anything to do with such people, so keep your wishes. If you are not following the story, there is no need to post comments.
Having said that, we need to understand that for every fake case, there are at least 1000 real cases. While the truth of the allegations are to be established and it is fine to assume innocence of the accused, the offensive attitude of the committee goes against every fibre of the law, which neither allows certain questions to be asked in cases involving women, nor permits demonstration of insensitivity. Not to mention that the accused has taken steps which suggests that he is guilty and the law provides that such acts are “relevant” evidence. One need not go to a village to understand crimes against women – it happens in AC glass-and-chrome offices too. Sure, a lot of women make false allegations but that does not mean we label complaints as prima facie false. We as a society not only continue to ignore crimes against women, but even go a step beyond to suggest that molestation or sexual harassment are no big deal! Even some judges speak utter nonsense - www.telegraphindia.com/1130710/jsp/opinion/story_17100421.jsp. The least we can do is show some sensitivity and respect towards women.
There are news in NUJS that two woman faculty are trying to shield the accused. These faculty are lega education teachers. Why dont they ask the accused to surrender in the High Court? What is their interest to protect the accussed ?
Quoting how large?:
BREAKING NEWS
The woman Faculties and one gent Faculty of NUJS trying to shoeld the accused has been exposed in the EC and the GC
As per the information one of the ICC member is a lady faculty whose one email says that she is unable to complete the scrutinising the answer scripts of the students of NUJS because she is busy entertaining her guest.
What can we expect from ICC of NUJS who has such member in the committee.
Instead of standing beside the victim lady how can this ICC ask such nonsense questions ?
Is the functioning of the ICC is permitted by the Law of Land when the Court has reject the bail application of the accused?
Let the Ministry of Law and Justice ask CBI to stepin in NUJS.
Request to Mr. Arnab Goswami - Please take NUJS in your News hour programme and all emails and documents on NUJS will be shown LIVE.
Quoting Guest:
Thanks for the support ----- Yes Nation wants to know since NUJS is the property of the Nation and not the property of the GC , EC , AC , VC and the Registrar
Mr. Arnab Goswami -- Please save the Legal education of the country. If your News hour programme brings Prof. Bhatt , Surojit Mukhopadhyay , Prof. M.P. Singh , D. Mukhopadhyay , I will come forward with their letters and documents so that these people can give their reply LIVE on TV.
Quote:
I would request that you either put up, or, with all due respect, hold your peace, rather than making vague and general accusations over and over and over again.
Why don't you upload the documents you have to a site such as scribd or google docs or dropbox or any other file uploading service?
Then post the link here for people to decide what it means.
But if these are the same documents we have seen before at LI, let me warn you that Arnab is unlikely to jump at the opportunity. And LI at the moment doesn't think there is a major or watertight story here.
So, by way of fair warning, no more vague comments along similar lines will be published unless something more concrete is put out there.
Best wishes
Kian
It is not a question of angry . It is a shame for all of us on the events that is going in NUJS. Hope with your own sources you are aware of the recent happenings in NUJS
That person then filed a lot of RTIs about it but never got a satisfactory response. Someone also wrote many vague comments about it, mostly in stories having nothing to do with NUJS but all having a similar tone.
Does that roughly summarise the facts? I look forward to hearing from you, either directly by email or in the comments.
Best wishes
Kian
It is not only recruitments ---- A BIG FINANCIAL SCAM HAPPENED IN NUJS. All are aware how come you dont know this?
Why those 11 candidates were deprived from serving NUJS when they had the valid law Degree ? Why discrimanation was metted out to NET and JRF qualified candidate ? Do we have to answer the questions or a investigation is to be done by you ?
If you can publish abut Anita Dhandavate of NALSAR why you keep silent on NUJS ?
Go abc. Start a new independent legal news website. We're behind you.
Dear abc
If any one of you start an Independent Legal site , I will publish all the documents on NUJS .
Dear abc
I have given in my comments on the date of the letters of the Registrar and the VC . Still LI cannot make an investigation...... WHY IS IT SO ? CAN WE BE INFORMED BY LI ?
Had VC taken stern step in the beginning would have not led to the string of events that are taking place at the moment.. the young woman was not only harassed by the accused but also by the ICC..sheer disgrace on part of NUJS!
Let the noice of India be raised on what happened to number of victims of NUJS .
Let the law take legal actions against the Faculties who are trying to shield the victim
Let the CBI and the poilice arrest those Faculties then the where abouts of the accused will be known immediately
Dear all
Sorry for the typographical error in my comments as quoted
Let the voice of India be raised on what happened to number of victims of NUJS .
Let the law take legal actions against the Faculties who are trying to shield the victim
Let the CBI and the police arrest those Faculties then the where about of the accused will be known immediately
Ok, when does this VC's tenure end?
There is still quite time left..
till then you could only expect the standard of the institute to deteriorate.. my friend! Most faculties,administrative staff and students are all very unhappy with the current VC.
To help your point, where is Pranab Mukherjee on issues like this? Where is Barrack Obama on issues like this? Where is Srinivasan on issues like this? where is katju on issues like this?
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