The Madras High Court on Thursday said it cannot stop the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Tamil Nadu governor from conducting inquiries into the alleged sex scandal at Madurai Kamaraj University, PTI reported.

In April, Devanga Arts College professor Nirmala Devi was arrested for allegedly luring students to provide sexual favours to senior university officials.

A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam said: “We cannot stay the probe by the SIT, all we can do is only ask the university whether it has implemented the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace [Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal] Act.”

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The court also asked the university to file a report on the implementation of the legislation in colleges affiliated to it. The High Court was hearing a petition by the Revolutionary Students Youth Front demanding that a new team, headed by a female official, be set up to investigate the scandal.

On Thursday, the advocate general filed a status report saying Devi had voluntarily confessed to attempting to lure girl students to offer sexual favours to the other two accused – Murugan and Karuppasamy. Murugan, a senior faculty member at the university, was arrested on April 24. Karuppasamy, a research assistant, surrendered in a court in Madurai not long after after.

According to the status report, “the calls made and received by the accused were analysed, and the concerned were summoned, examined and statements received,” it said. “The calls among the three were corroborated based on the voluntary confession and the facts were verified,” the report added.

The scandal came to light after a telephonic conversation between Devi and a group of college girls was leaked. Devi had claimed that she knew Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who is the chancellor of the university. Purohit denied having any link with Devi and ordered an inquiry into the matter by retired Indian Administrative Service officer R Santhanam.