PU panel for action against complainant

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

A Panjab University (PU) committee has called for action against a woman professor and senator, who is the complainant against Vice-Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover in a sexual harassment case, for directly approaching Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. Naidu is also Chancellor of the university.

Along with her, the committee has called for action against seven other teachers too — Assistant Professor Ashu Khosla from the Department of Geology, Prof Alok Srivastava from the Department of Chemistry, Associate Professor Neelam Paul from the Department of Music, Prof Madhurima Mahajan from the Department of Sociology in University School of Open Learning (USOL), Prof BB Goyal from University Business School (UBS), Assistant Professor Komal Singh from the Department of Public Administration, and Prof Vijay Kumar Chopra, retired from the Department of Evening Studies, as they also directly complained to the Chancellor.

The committee was formed after the Syndicate decision on October 7, 2017, where the governing body discussed the complaint of the woman professor marked to the PU from the Chancellor’s office. The woman professor had alleged that a letter was fraudulently issued from the Vice-President’s office on January 20, 2016, concerned with the sexual harassment case, “in connivance with Anshuman Gaur, OSD , the then secretary to the VP, and Col GS Chadha (retd), Registrar”, solely to help out the Vice-Chancellor in the case.

The committee, which comprised fellows Prof DVS Jain, Tarlochan Singh, Prof Pam Rajput, Ambassador IS Chadha and VK Sibal, was to look into issues to avoid such occurrences in future.

Rule 12 of Service and Conduct Rules

The committee looked into the Rule 12 of the Service and Conduct Rules for University Employees and said the Rule 12 (b) says that “direct communication to or a personal interview with a higher authority and or members of the Syndicate or Senate without permission of the Vice-Chancellor should be treated as contravention of the discipline of the university”.

The committee also noted that there have been repeated violations of the Rules 12 (a) and (b) and that in “none of these cases any disciplinary proceedings were instituted. All such violations of the above Rules need to be dealt with in accordance with the provisions expeditiously,”

It also added that the authority for the “management of and superintendence over the affairs of the university is vested in the Senate and there is no provision for appeal against its decision to any higher authority”.

The woman professor reacted, “Is filing a complaint a crime? How can they stop anyone from speaking? I had highlighted a case of corruption. Let them do what they want to do. It was what Britishers used to do, and before that, Mughals were using the same tactics.”

The Syndicate will take final call on the committee’s recommendations in its meeting on February 24.