NEW DELHI: The Delhi Minorities Commission has issued a notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on a complaint filed by a Muslim woman professor who has alleged that she was harassed by the university administration on grounds of her religion. Seeking a response from the university Registrar, the panel chief Zafarul Islam Khan has said that the professor has submitted “ample proof” to show that her salary has been stopped since April 2019 for no legal reason.
The professor is not assigned classes or given the opportunity to supervise M.Phil and PhD students. She is also not allowed to attend the Centre faculty meetings and has even been barred from using her official university email id.“Not content with all this, the JNU administration is pressurising her to vacate her accommodation on the campus. DMC finds her claim that this is being done only for her being a Muslim, prima facie credible. DMC has directed the registrar (JNU) to file his reply by 1 August, 2019, failing which a case will be registered against him, VC JNU and the Chairperson of the concerned Centre,” the panel said.
The professor has alleged “systematic harassment” by the JNU administration, especially by the director of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy where the complainant is a teacher under a UGC-funded scheme.
The panel has also issued an interim order to the registrar to immediately stop any harassment of the complainant, release the complainant’s arrears by 26 July, 2019 and regularise the future salary payments to the complainant during her tenure at JNU. It also restrained the administration from withdrawing the housing facility given to her.