Gujarat High Court takes cognisance of rape allegations, queer student harassment at GNLU

The Gujarat High Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a news report concerning rape allegations and allegations of harassment of a queer student at the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU)..The allegations were initially reported anonymously on an Instagram page. A second-year law student from GNLU alleged that she was raped by her batchmate. Another student alleged that he has been facing harassment for being queer. These allegations were reported by the Ahmedabad Mirror on September 22, Friday. .Based on the same, a bench of Justices AS Supehia and MR Mengdey has initiated court proceedings on both issues."We take suo motu cognisance of the news report published on September 22 since it raises an issue of grave concern which has a direct impact on the psychological and physical well-being of students. The report does not suggest any action taken by administration for want of formal complaint which in our opinion would not be a correct approach," the Court said..The Court issued notice to the GNLU Registrar who was asked to file a report on the matter. ."We direct the Registry to issue notice to the Registrar, Academic Affairs of the institution. Meanwhile, GNLU is ordered to identify the students and record their statements and maintain confidentiality," the Court directed.Further, GNLU was ordered to inform the Court about the norms or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) adopted by the University to tackle student ragging incidents. .The Court added that if the statements given by the victims are found to be genuine and if they inspire confidence, then further steps under the law should be taken immediately..The Court observed that the news report by the Ahmedabad Mirror featured extremely serious allegations. The media outlet had reported that a male student had experienced severe mental trauma as a result of harassment solely because he was queer. Additionally, a female student accused a fellow batchmate of rape, the Court noted.The Court will hear the matter next on October 10.