Proceedings against professor halted over Facebook posts

Chandigarh, March 14

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed further proceeding based on a charge sheet against an Associate Professor of Guru Jambheshwar University. During the course of the hearing, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya’s Bench was told that the only allegation against the petitioner was that he forwarded certain posts — some of which were against the Central and state political figures, the parties and their policies — on his Facebook account in June 2021.

Appearing on petitioner Dr Rajesh Thakur’s behalf, advocate Sardavinder Goyal contended that the impugned charge sheet was a result of mala fide and arbitrary action against him. As per the “Conduct Rules”, misconduct was not committed by the petitioner.

Goyal added that it was a personal account and not a public platform, which was accessible only to the petitioner’s “limited contact list”. The complainant, a Rajasthan resident, and the university, did not have access to the account. He never uttered anything against the university or the governments from any public platform.