– Mita Mukherjee

Students of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) staged a protest inside the campus and gheraoed vice-chancellor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti in his chamber for over 20 hours from Saturday evening to Sunday morning demanding his resignation over a recent Supreme Court order asking the vice-chancellor to mention in his resume “incidents of alleged sexual harassment” charges brought against him by a faculty member.

A teacher of the law school had accused the vice-chancellor of harassment in December 2023. The alleged sexual harassment happened in April 2023.

The top court had dismissed the allegations citing delay in filing the complaint beyond the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal ) Act deadline. But directed that the judgement be mentioned in the VC’s resume as a permanent record of the allegation. 

The students had given a representation to the executive council of the university, its highest policy making body demanding the VC’s resignation. The executive committee met on Saturday.

After the meeting ended the students started the agitation and gheraoed the vice-chancellor when they found that the VC had not stepped down.

The vice-chancellor, however, was allowed to leave the campus after 4 am on Sunday.

Later during the day, the students said they have now withdrawn the gherao but their movement will continue and they are firm about their demand on resignation of the vice-chancellor.

They gave October 31 as the deadline for the vice-chancellor’s resignation.

Apart from the sexual harassment charge, the students demanded the resignation citing multiple reasons including loss of institutional reputation during his tenure, unsafe environment for female staff and students and financial mismanagement.

After the students lifted the gherao, the vice- chancellor said that the allegations brought against him were “false”, “vexatious” and “vindicative”.

“The demand for my resignation is unjust. The allegations are false, vexatious and vindicative. I have filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking modification of paragraphs in the judgement that direct mentioning the allegation in my resume and also the mention of the word wrongdoer,” the vice-chancellor told EducationWorld.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Chakrabarti said, “Certain observations are made by Hon’ble Supreme Court without any inquiry on merits, without testing of evidence, and without an opportunity of hearing. So our legal team is availing legal remedies as are available to us under the law. The judicial remedies are under process. I have utmost respect for the Hon’ble Supreme Court and I’m confident that the truth shall ultimately triumph. Hence, students demand for resignation due to court remarks is unjust.”

The complainant faculty member had alleged harassment between 2019 and April 2023. When the internal complaints committee rejected it citing the statutory three-month deadline, the complainant moved Calcutta High Court and later, the Supreme Court.

According to the students, the Supreme Court has said in its order that that the wrongdoing cannot be forgotten and so asked the VC to mention the verdict in his resume.

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