The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Jawaharlal Nehru University administration to initiate an inquiry against professor Atul Johri regarding the charges of sexual harassment eight women students have made against him. Judge Rajiv Shakdher also asked the university to respond to the students’ plea that Johri be suspended and restrained from entering campus, The Hindu reported.
“What is happening? You have not been able to do anything,” Shakdher asked the counsel for the university, according to The Indian Express. “Is it that the vice chancellor of the institution has no power to take action against the professor?”
The counsel replied that the students had not approached the university’s Internal Complaints Committee, but had filed a police complaint.
The court then asked the counsel if the university was unaware of the First Information Reports filed in the case, and added that there were many alternatives to approaching the Internal Complaints Committee. “At least interim measures can be taken,” the court said. “You can advise the professor that till the investigation is completed into the cases against him, he should stay out of the campus.”
The court issued notices to the university, Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar and the Delhi Police on the plea seeking Johri’s suspension, and to the professor on the students’ petition asking for him to be barred from the campus. The bench asked the parties to respond by May 2.
Johri resigned from his administrative role on March 16. The police have registered eight separate cases of sexual harassment against him, as demanded by 54 professors of the university in a petition. A Delhi court had granted Johri bail in March.
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