Gujarat High Court: While hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation against the sexual harassment allegations by a Gujarat National Law University (‘GNLU’) student, the Division Bench of Sunita Agarwal, CJ and Aniruddha P. Mayee, J. directed the GNLU to submit an affidavit disclosing the measures taken by the ICC to ensure that the complaints lodged before the Committee reach it without any manual intervention.
In the matter at hand, the Court took suo motu cognizance of the rape allegations of a student made in the anonymous post on Instagram, which was quoted in the Ahmedabad Mirror news report. A fact-finding committee headed by retired IPS officer Keshavkumar, Former Director General of Police was constituted to ascertain the allegations made in the news report. However, the Court was not convinced and disapproved of how the GNLU dealt with the matter. In order dated 11-10-2023, the Court said the University Authorities were trying to cover up the whole issue, to save the image of the institution.
The Court noted that there was questioning around the constitution of the Internal Complaint Committee (‘ICC’) and concern was expressed by the students and the amicus curiae regarding the mechanism adopted for smooth filing of the complaints before the ICC.
Therefore, the Court directed GNLU to submit an affidavit of a competent officer to disclose the measures taken by the ICC to ensure that the complaints lodged before the Committee reaches it without any manual intervention or any kind of possibility of external pressure keeping in mind that the perpetrator may be a part of the institution.
The matter was further listed for a hearing on 22-02-2024.
[Suo Motu v. Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), R/Writ Petition (PIL) No. 110 of 2023, Order Dated: 31-01-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: Advocate Krina P Calla
For the respondent: Advocate General K.B. Trivedi, Advocate Dharmishta Raval