Rape, Queer Student Harassment Allegations | 'GNLU Trying To Save Institute's Image, Its Inquiry Merely A Cover Up', Says High Court In Suo Moto Case

Dealing with the suo moto matter pertaining to rape allegations by a second-year law student against her batchmate and harassment of a queer student at the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), the Gujarat High Court took strong exception to the working of the Institute’s fact-finding committee concerned with the issue in question.A bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P. Mayee was also displeased with an affidavit filed by the Registrar of the Institute (dated October 9), pursuant to HC’s last month order, stating that there was no substance in the allegations as reported by the Daily Ahmedabad Mirror. The bench was dismayed at the Institute’s affidavit as it noted that a fact-finding committee headed by a retired IPS officer, Keshav Kumar, has already been constituted to ascertain the allegations made in the complaint reported in the newspaper and that the said committee hasn’t given any report as yet. “The affidavit filed by the registrar, GNLU seems to be an over anxious effort to hush hush the whole matter in a summary way, by stating that there does not appear to be any substance in the anonymous post posted on Instagram which was quoted in the news report of Ahmedabad Mirror... We are taking strong exception to the stand of the registrar, GNLU in the affidavit...,” the Court remarked. Importantly, the Court flagged its concern regarding appointing Professor Anjani Singh Tomar to the Institute’s fact-finding committee when she had already filed a one-line report on October 7 stating that no student came to meet her and depose before her in relation to the allegations in question. “We fail to understand as to how and in what manner, the institute is dealing with the report which was published in the newspaper on September 23, more so when the intimation about such alleged incidents was received by the registrar, as per his own admission, on 19 September. The manner in which the enquiry is being done by the University seems to be an effort to cover up the whole issue, to save the image of the institution.” In its order, the Court also took up the issue regarding the non-working of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at the GNLU and therefore, it sought the annual report and constitution of the last three years of the ICC. The Court also warned the registrar of the University to remain careful in future while submitting his affidavit before this Court in the matter. While parting with the order, the bench directed for reconstitution of the fact-finding committee In response to the observations made by the Court, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi appearing for the GNLU submitted that he would be making an enquiry into the matter personally to ensure that the fact-finding committee constituted by the University is reconstituted with independent members of the society having no concern with the institution at all. He also submitted that no stone would unturned in taking all the corrective measures in the matter. After the bench was done with dictating the order, he requested the bench to not use the word hush-hush with regard to the University’s conduct, to which, the CJ said that some other word would be used in the place of ‘Hush’. With this, the matter was posted for further hearing on November 2. The allegations On September 23, the ‘Ahmedabad Mirror reported that a queer student has accused the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) of fostering a homophobic culture on the campus. In a separate case, a female student of GNLU has accused her batch mate of rape. Though no complaints have been made by the victims, however, they have posted their grievances, anonymously, on the social media handle of all the National Law Universities. In his post, the queer student alleged that he was made to ‘feel bad’ about being queer and was ‘bashed’ for not being liked by anyone in the boys' hostel and how he ‘did not belong’ there. He also claimed that there was no grievance redressal mechanism available at the campus. In her post, the rape victim alleged that she was raped by a batchmate after intoxicating her and made took her videos and threatened to leak the videos if she raised an alarm or talked about it.

Rape, Queer Student Harassment Allegations | 'GNLU Trying To Save Institute's Image, Its Inquiry Merely A Cover Up', Says High Court In Suo Moto Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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