“It is advisable to forgive the wrongdoer, but not to forget the wrongdoing. The wrong which has been committed against the appellant may not be investigated on technical grounds, but it must not be forgotten,” the bench said.

Interestingly, the faculty member's legal team had an NUJS-Chicago grad (Rishad Chadhury) and the VC's legal team had an NUJS grad (Kunal Chatterji, who regularly represents the WB govt in cases and has been appearing in many cases on behalf of NUJS).

https://www.livelaw.in/amp/top-stories/supreme-court-holds-nujs-facultys-sexual-harassment-complaint-against-vc-time-barred-but-directs-vc-to-mention-judgment-in-his-resume-303753

https://www.barandbench.com/news/supreme-court-dismisses-nujs-faculty-members-posh-complaint-against-vice-chancellor-but

Why only Nepal Z? Who knows maybe the former CJI will do a Lord Taluk. After all Yunus across the border seems very inspired by Lord Taluk.

Other historical or recent student led protests that can serve as inspiration or caution are ones in US (Civil Rights, Vietnam War) South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and most recently Indonesia.

https://www.barandbench.com/news/nlu-model-has-steered-majority-of-law-graduates-to-corporate-jobs-cji-br-gavai

Will this great man come for the GC and ask another great man why student fees keep rising with Leaps & Bounds and we do not get commensurate facilities, security, administrative transparency, responsive academic quality etc? Not a wish list. Just a min since we foot the entire bill that pays for salaries, perks and fancy jaunts of the VC and his acolytes and his traffic in IOUs. Also meaningless litigations in the courts while he buries inquiries mandated by the EC. Then again, SJA is ▮▮▮

True. The wider student community got hollowed out by NKC admin with active support from faculty, including former Noojies. A powerful SJA, esp one that has a mind of its own is a nightmare for both admin and faculty; being an ex Noojie doesn't necessarily mean they bleed our colour. Same applies for the much touted alumni. And this shouldn't be held against them. That's life. Positions, viewpoints etc change. Any support from these contested quarters should always be vetted and deployed with careful consideration.

But we are here right now. And it is our skin in the game. Even if we are only interested to get a fancy piece of paper, that paper must retain value till we recover the investment made and not just in terms of the monies spent. Maybe small change for more than a few. But certain core things go beyond the usual divides and petty ones like BA and BSc.

SJA is merely an admin created channel to "deal" with students. The student community isn't obligated to continue with SJA if it only advances individual interests of the SJA brass. Labour unions mostly fail because they are often sold out by their own leadership.

True. But ABP online did a report belatedly. Not sure if the news channels beard anything. But TT and TOI are already part of regime friendly pack here. Rest are part of the regime anyway. Interestingly the media had lapped up the SJA resolution in May 2024 and later when Cal HC decided in favour of VC in Dec 2024. Guess they were all plants then.

NUJS organised khap panchayat when a former SC judge was inducted if SH charges although the Noojie did not launch formal proceedings. Another Noojie who went formal was clocked out by the system and silence shrouds the differential treatment by all concerned stakeholders. An admin staffer was also evicted when SH charges were levelled. So what happens now? Is the ▮▮▮ faculty hoping to ride shotgun if and when students are goaded into action?

I feel sad for the NUJS VC even if his extension comes to an end and he moves on.

He should have got a chance to prove that he is not guilty instead of having to carry these allegations on his CVIf the SC bench was so intent on providing justice then they should have allowed an investigation instead of this order which actually hints at the accused being guilty. Even people who commit murder or graver crimes serve their sentence and then move on with their life.

How can this be a solution for allegations to be kept in memory forever( by symbolically inserting it in the Resume/ CV)as something which should never be forgotten .

I fail to understand what ends of justice this serves.

Maybe the SC judges, not just ones who write the judgment, know something we don't. It's strange that successive CJIs and their nominees have skipped convocation. Maybe now it will take place. And don't cry for VC. He is made of sterner stuff. Don't be fooled by his act. Nothing stops him from going for a review. You can join his long list of well wishers. Isn't it interesting that all Kolkata based studiously avoided making even a small mention of this order? Sure, criticise it. But to completely blank it out? Compare this to a former SC judge being hounded out. There too the matter remained equally hazy. But the highest levels of regime was deeply invested in running a kangaroo court and the Delhi friends also chipped in. Why did the heart not bleed similarly for another Noojie who brought in a complaint against another former SC judge? Her case was clocked out through "process" while another one happily enjoyed state facilitated jaunt in Canada. A certain insider and a former IAS wrote about this among other shocking details. Why was the defamation case not pursued against him in Cal HC zealously?

I don’t understand this. If the claim is time barred, and cannot be investigated, then no findings against the VC can be made at all, and his alleged ill behaviour cannot just be assumed to be true. Why, then, should the judgement state the allegations be mentioned in his CV - that leaves a stain and treats him as if he were guilty (whereas he should, as we all should, be treated as innocent until proven guilty).

If this direction were applied universally, it would simply mean the ability to allege wrongdoing - or certain kinds of wrongdoing - would itself become an extremely powerful weapon, capable of enormous misuse.

Isn’t this a populist outcome, and not one supported by basic tenets of our legal system?

Also, I understood that the policy behind time-barring claims is the implicit assumption made by the law that the elapse of time adversely affects the ability to gather all relevant evidence. Thus, time barring would not be a case of the law “forgiving” an individual wrongdoer - that is not the job of the law - it would be based on natural justice, inasmuch as it becomes difficult to defend a claim if evidence is long lost or forgotten.

The law in India for normal cases is Innocent until proven guilty. However, the same for Sexual Harassment complaints/offenses is Guilty until proven Innocent. This is universally followed through POSH proceedings, rape laws, or POCSO Act. The SC just put it in words, this is anyway enforced socially for POSH complaints. A complaint can destroy the career of the accused. Luckily in this case, this guy is retiring.

Is he? Or jockeying to appoint an acolyte and come back in as Chair et al. He has already placed several acolytes in the ranks who are running amok. As usual faculty and staff are waiting to hitch a ride on student protests, which is not going to happen. VC knows how to divide and conquer. He recently did it in a staff meeting

First decade of NUJS, no SH complaints. From 2012 onwards barrage of formal complaints by staff and faculty and serious allegations of student complaints being hushed up. Despite all his shenanigans, Lord Taluk promptly acted on SJA complaint against a senior faculty who was heading the ICC then and cut her tenure short.

Even after this stinger from SC, the VC is trying to frustrate the ICC. What is the SJA doing? Sold out, arm twisted?

Why is this post contested? Records on NUJS website or elsewhere in media don't show SH complaints being made in the initial decade of univ establishment. But thereafter, LI itself reported extensively on the PA vs then AR Admin; the shenanigans of a certain Registrar who was sacked (again kudos to LI for reporting on the Justice PN Sinha inquiry); SJA backed complaints got Lord Taluk to change ICC composition including removal of its then Chair; and now this. Is it also not a fact that after the May 2024 dispatch to DYC the SJA has gone completely silent? Is it also not a fact that several SH and polysubstance abuse complaints are ▮▮▮? Many judges et al in HC and SC know all this since they have their kids, relatives etc studying or teaching here.

Will you be including this judgement while teaching limitations, POSH Act etc in NUJS. Seriously, it should be included for classroom teaching and possibly feature as a question in upcoming end sem exams.

When the PIB eviction took place NLS Admin Law paper actually had the entire incident mentioned as part of a question in the exam.

By the way the entire distance education matter was also decided by the Calcutta HC in a similar manner. Nothing to do with black letter law. But that's another story.

Yes, LI likely reported it. Paper was widely circulated then ofc after the exam. Dr Yashomati Ghosh, who previously taught at NUJS (and did her postgraduate here) was the concerned teach at NLS then, now NLU Goa. For more you can contact her or the spouse Ani C also at NLU Goa now.

His statement to Indian Express suggests that VC is likely to approach the SC again concerning the unprecedented order. He is likely to use the farcical and hapless student protests as evidence of victimization. While the headless chickens quack about, NKC came out stronger. Game, set, match. NKC.

@Mod: I have a policy related question about some of the unpublished posts here. The posts marked trollish and trollish+contested have understandably not been published or have been removed. I'm sure you had followed the moderation policy in those cases. However, I can see that a post only marked contested has been removed/not published. What was the process involved in that case? If you were sure that the post is untrue, then you wouldn't have published it. If you are marking it contested, then it means someone had flagged/challenged it. What did you do after that? Investigated the claim? Seen prima facie evidence of it being unusual? As in, I'm curious about the procedure followed here.

Is it true that the VC was greeted with protests by both students and faculty before he went in for GC meeting today? What happened inside? And is the VC still holding on? He is a veteran of Hazra Law and that place has political student unions. He will play soft and hard. A stray protest here or there is just entertainment from him. Bad press doesn't bother him. Staying on as long as possible has pecuniary benefits, overt and otherwise.

Heard that VC and his band of brothers actually had a good time in the VC office while students kept them boxed in but had no clue about next steps. So what now. Clearly he will not resign and EC will not do anything till they get a smoking gun. I guess it's dream on and not game on

Students have been mislead by certain faculty and staff factions to believe that this SC judgment with a googly stinger is done sort of silver bullet for their NKC problem. Students need to get better and more concrete evidence of misconduct, deliberate negligence, financial chicanery etc. Better to avoid those dangling bombastic allegations without relevant documents. Fight the good fight for our own reasons.