The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration reconstituted the inquiry committee against professor Nivedita Menon, after she moved the Delhi High Court citing the fact that the committee was headed by an academic she had once testified against in a sexual harassment case.
"I took legal counsel and filed a petition in Delhi High Court on Friday, asking for Committee to be reconstituted. The matter was listed for yesterday, August 23. In court, JNU submitted a notification issued the previous day, 22nd, saying the entire committee has been reconstituted," said Menon who is the chairperson of the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at JNU's School of International Studies
The committee was constituted by the Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar to probe the "role of faculty members," in the storming of an academic council meeting by students on December 26 last year and participated in a demonstration at the Varsity's administration block, violating an administrative ban on protests at the spot.
Kumar had nominated the JNU executive council member Bidyut Chakrabarty, who is a professor at Delhi University, where Menon used to work before joining JNU, as the head of the committee.
During that stint, Menon had publicly testified against Chakrabarty in connection with a sexual harassment complaint by an employee of Delhi University's Gandhi Bhavan. The university's apex complaints committee had found Chakrabarty guilty in 2007.
"Professor Nivedita Menon had alleged that the Prof Chakrabarty would be biased against her in view of the past case of GSCASH against him in Delhi University during which she had deposed against Prof Chakrabarty.
"Respecting natural justice and to have fair examination of the case the competent authority has reconstituted the committee," said SP Singh, JNU's acting registrar in a notification.
The notification, however, said that Prof Bidyut Chakrabarty's fact finding committee has already submitted its report in the matter on August 18.
On December 26 last year, several students had barged into the academic council meeting and chanted slogans demanding the reduction of the weight given to the oral interview in admission to research courses. Following this, nine students were suspended.
PROF SPEAK
- “I took legal counsel and filed a petition in Delhi High Court on Friday, asking for the Committee to be reconstituted,” says Professor Nivedita Menon
