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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/bar-and-bias-whether-its-college-or-courtroom-law-still-a-boys-club/articleshow/101787396.cms?from=mdr
👆 Op-ed in today's TOI. The author, Sameena Dalwai, is a professor at Jindal. She is also the daughter of Hussain Dalwai, a two-time Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former Congress Minister in Maharashtra. So I guess this means she has high-level contacts who have verified the claims? Or maybe she heard it from colleagues or interns themselves? These are her exact words:
"I am teaching in a premier law school. Times have changed; academia is full of female faculty and female students rule the college scene. Yet sexism lives on. A legal luminary came to deliver a speech. From the podium, he pointed to our female students and said, “So nice to watch so many young girls, in short skirts...haha.” The man, then nearly 90 years old, was a legend in law and in lechery. While he harassed generations of young female lawyers, other lawyers — men and women — watched mutely."
Now, there are some clear hints she gives regarding the identity of the person:
- He delivered a lecture at Jindal during her tenure at Jindal
- He was nearly 90 at the time of the lecture
- She says he WAS "a legend in law and lechery". It means he is no more. So it's someone who passed away in the approximate age range of 87-100 in the past 10 years or so.
- She says "legal luminary" and "legend", so this points towards a very select list of top Supreme Court lawyers or judges or professors (hence, I am using "jurist" in the title).
- She quotes a remark he made at the lecture, about girls in short skirts. This, in many ways, is the biggest giveaway. Now, an alum from Jindal should be able to identify the person based on his remark.
But the broader question here is why people keep getting away in the legal profession even as #MeToo has led to resignations and sackings in other professors. Whether it's this "legendary" jurist, or a former judge who was accused by an NLU intern and got an injunction blocking news coverage (later offered post-retirement posts and a professorship at Jindal itself) or Lawrence Liang (happily rehabilitated by the elite liberal ecosystem and roped in by Sudhir as a consultant for a project).
NOTE: I appreciate the rule about innocent until proven guilty, but in the former judge's case it was reported in the media that he reached a settlement with the student that both would refrain from legal action against each other. If he is innocent, then why did he reach a settlement? Also, in Liang's case, a departmental enquiry found him liable and also said that he had harassed interns at ALF.