JNU students' union seeks action over ban on girl student who complained of sexual harassment
NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Thursday sought an appointment with the vice-chancellor related to the Internal Complaint Committee’s (ICC) recommendations in which it debarred a female student who had filed a case of sexual harassment against her PhD guide. The students’ union, earlier in the day, decided to meet the V-C and ask him to “reject the biased ICC report”. The union claimed that after they waited for an hour, they wrote to the V-C and request for an appointment in the “sensitive” matter.
The student had filed the complaint on April 12 this year, while the recommendations were given by the ICC on November 5. “The complainant should be completely debarred from entering in the JNU campus. She shall not be allowed to take up any course or employment in the JNU in future. She should not be allowed to enter the campus to attend any academic or non-academic proceedings. She should not be allowed to enter for personal reasons what so ever,” said the recommendations.
The ICC also asked the complainant to apologise to the university and the defendant. “The JNU administration shall not issue any character certificate and no objection certificate to the complainant in future,” it said. The complainant, who is yet to receive a PhD degree from the varsity, in a statement said she “feels like a criminal”.
As recommended by the ICC, if she needs to come to the JNU campus for participating in an inquiry, she will have to notify the Proctor’s Office and the chief security officer and she will be escorted by two female security guards. Her “degree shall be put on hold till the Academic Council concludes proceedings ”, the ICC said.
“Appalled and shocked” over the recommendations, the JNUSU demanded they be scrapped and the Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) be reinstated.