Justice Indu Malhotra committee to review GNLU affairs after sexual harassment allegations: Gujarat High Court told

The Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) told the Gujarat High Court on Thursday that in the wake of recent sexual harassment allegations that has rocked the university, it has constituted a High Level Review Committee (HLRC) headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra to review the university's performance in the last five years [Suo Motu PIL v. Gujarat National Law University]. .A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee was told that this HLRC will also have Attorney General R Venkataramani and State Finance Department's former additional chief secretary MM Shrivastav as its members. Senior Advocate Kamal Trivedi appearing for the GNLU informed the bench that the Governing Council of the university met on March 23 and resolved to constitute the HLRC and also a sub-committee, which will comprise of Senior Advocates Manisha Luvkumar Shah and Asim Pandya."The Governing Council was extremely concerned about the welfare of the students and therefore University has been asked to take all measures to create a safe and secure environment among students so that they do not feel inhibited to come forward with such experiences," Trivedi told the court.The Governing Council, therefore, resolved to constitute the HLRC, Trivedi told the Court"This HLRC will review the performance of the university last five years in the field of academics, administration, finance and security of students. The sub-committee, will be visiting the University and and give a report for ensuring that immediate corrective measures for a transparent and vigilante Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) is put in place, which should be sensitive, responsible and effective and ensure that there is quick response to any complaint of sexual harassment," Trivedi submitted.Trivedi further submitted that the reports of both these committees will be forwarded to the Executive Council of the GNLU, which will give its opinion on the same. He added that the University administration has also been asked to undertake measures to appoint a Registrar for GNLU as soon as possible.The submissions were made in a suo motu case initiated by the Court after allegations of rape of one student and harassment of another queer student at GNLU were reported last year.The bench today recorded the submissions of GNLU and opined that the findings of both the committees must also be placed before the Governing Council of the GNLU..During one of the previous hearings, the Court had expressed shock over the conclusions of another fact-finding committee constituted earlier, which revealed that incidents of rape, molestation, favouritism, homophobia and lack of information to students about the ICC, were prevalent at GNLU.The Court had then slammed the GNLU administration, which had initially claimed that nothing had happened in the varsity.During the hearing of the case on March 12, the Court had ordered the General Council of the University to look into the report of the fact finding committee which revealed various lapses on part of GNLU's administration.The General Council then met and decided to constitute the committee led by Justice Malhotra.