New Delhi: The Karnataka high court on Tuesday set aside the punitive action taken by the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru against a professor accused in a sexual harassment case, reports say.
Absolving the professor, who was sent on compulsory retirement, the court ordered action to be taken against the institute’s director and the members of its inquiry committee for allegedly botching up the inquiry proceedings.
Justice B.P. Bajanthri held that several errors had been committed by the IISc while dealing with a sexual harassment case against scientist Giridhar Madras, reported The Hindu. The professor had been part of the faculty of the institute’s chemical engineering department and had been associated with the IISc. since 1998.
Statutory procedures under the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the Central Civil Services Rules — like providing a copy of the complaint to the professor within the prescribed period, constructing the inquiry committee according to rules and following the prescribed process for conducting the inquiry and submitting a report — were not followed by IISc, said the court.
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The professor, who had filed a petition alleging that he had been asked to go on compulsory retirement without being given a chance to answer a showcause notice, also alleged that the complaint had not been based on evidence but on “perceptions.” Times of India reported Madras as having held that while the first complaint lodged by a woman against the professor was dealt with and disposed of in January 2017, a second complaint lodged in March of that year was not really an allegation.
The court further observed that injustice was done with regard to the disclosure of the professor’s name by IISc office holders to mediapersons. There was enough indication, held the court, that the director and members of the inquiry committee had given statements while the inquiry was on to newspapers. This, according to the TOI report, had affected Madras’s chances of getting a subsequent job.
The committee submitted its report on February 28, 2018, and ordered him to retire on October 17, 2018. Giridhar had challenged both in his petition.
The court also requested the Union Ministry of Personnel and Training to conduct classes on the proper method of conducting inquiries in sexual harassment processes and “avoiding errors.”
In 2015, IISc had fired professor S. Durgappa over charges of sexual harassment. The case ran into troubled waters when the professor filed a case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the institute’s director and claimed that the sexual harassment complaint had been orchestrated by the institute’s management. Durgappa later withdrew his complaint.