Supreme Court Deletes Direction To Ex-NUJS VC To Mention Dismissal Of Sexual Harassment Complaint In His Resume

The Supreme Court deleted a direction contained in its earlier judgment that Professor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, the former Vice Chancellor of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Science, should mention the dismissal of a sexual harassment complaint in his resume.A bench comprising Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Prasanna B Varale deleted the direction in view of the fact that the sexual harassment complaint was dismissed as time-barred and that there was no finding on merits against him.On September 12, the same bench had held that the sexual harassment complaint made by a faculty member of NUJS against the then VC was time-barred as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. While dismissing the complaint, the bench had observed in the concluding paragraph of the judgment - "In this view of the matter, we direct that the incidents of alleged sexual harassment on part of respondent no.1(Chakrabarti) may be forgiven but allowed to haunt the wrongdoer forever. Thus, it is directed that this judgment shall be made part of the resume of respondent no.1, compliance of which shall be strictly ensured by him personally."Later, Professor Chakrabarti filed an application to delete this direction, saying that it would cause prejudice to him, as the complaint was in any case dismissed. Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, for the ex-VC, argued that the direction will cause a stigma against him, who has not been found guilty. Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, for the complainant/petitioner, opposed the application, saying that the proper remedy is to file a review petition.The bench did not get into the issue of maintainability of the application and proceeded by treating it as a review.The bench observed that its only intention was to apprise the public about the issue. "The intention of the Court in adding the above sentence was only to apprise the public with regard to the incident which had taken place involving the applicant/respondent. But nonetheless, as there is no finding on merits against him, we consider it appropriate to delete the same as probably the incident is under investigation/trial pursuant to an FIR," the bench observed.Accordingly, the bench directed the deletion of the direction to mention the judgment in his resume."Accordingly, we delete the aforesaid sentence beginning from 'Thus' and ending with 'personally' contained in paragraph No. 34 of the judgment and order dated 12.09.2025 for the reason that we have not indicted the applicant/respondent on merits in any manner though the matter may have been argued on merits," the bench ordered.Case : Vaneeta Patnaik Vs. Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti & Others | (M.A. D. No. 54540 of 2025 OrsClick here to read the order

Supreme Court Deletes Direction To Ex-NUJS VC To Mention Dismissal Of Sexual Harassment Complaint In His Resume

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