NUJS Faculty demands removal of J. Ganguly as honorary professor; Condemns ‘character assassination’ of law intern

Twelve members of faculty at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS) have issued a statement in support of the law intern who has accused Justice AK Ganguly of sexually harassing her..In a petition addressed to the NUJS administration, the faculty members have appealed to the NUJS authorities to take immediate steps to disassociate the University from Justice Ganguly, who still continues to remain on the rolls of the institute as a honorary professor..“We feel that his continued association with our institution undermines the ideals of NUJS, an institution that has always strived to teach and foster justice, including gender justice,” said the faculty..NUJS Vice Chancellor P Ishwara Bhat had earlier issued a statement indicating that the issue will be discussed at the next Executive Council meeting scheduled for January 2014..Some of the faculty members had last month demanded the University to investigate the issue at the earliest so that a clear message could be sent out, but so far no steps have been taken in this regard. The full statement of the faculty members is available below..Statement issued by NUJS Faculty MembersOn the 6th of November, 2013, [….. ], one of our former students wrote a blog post highlighting the conflicting range of emotions that she underwent in the aftermath of sexual harassment at the hands of a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. Subsequent to this, the Chief Justice of India constituted a Committee (SCC) to look into the charges leveled by her. SCC found that Stella’s statements “prima facie discloses an act of unwelcome behaviour (unwelcome verbal/non-verbal conduct of sexual nature)”. After this, key portions from [the intern’s] affidavit outlining the horrific incident was disclosed to a newspaper by a high ranking law officer of the country. Further, press reports indicate that the Attorney General of India has opined to the Union Home Ministry that “[…] [it] is a fit case for action and there is enough evidence to proceed against the former Supreme Court judge”.Considering the nature of allegations, and noting that [the intern] was a student, and the former judge was an honorary professor of NUJS at the time of incident, we feel that the latter’s continued association with our institution undermines the ideals of NUJS, an institution that has always strived to teach and foster justice, including gender justice. We believe that the position of a Professor is that of trust, and requires that such person be above reproach, especially above allegations of misbehaviour with students, particularly when such allegations have been found to have prima facie merit by a high level committee. Given that the former judge continues to remain an honorary professor at NUJS, we request the NUJS administration to take immediate steps to see to it that necessary action is initiated against the former judge.We acknowledge the position taken by the Vice Chancellor, as reported in the media, about placing the matter of institution’s continued association with the former judge in the next Executive Council meeting. However in light of the findings of SCC and Supreme Court’s direction in Vishaka requiring the employer to take steps affirmatively, we call upon the NUJS administration including the Executive Council, the body responsible for appointments, to appropriately address this matter with utmost urgency. Till he is exonerated from all the charges …., the University should, at the very least, dissociate itself from him. We must clarify here that we respect the right of the former judge and all other parties to pursue appropriate legal remedies and defend themselves as per due process of law.We also note with concern the unwarranted statements from several quarters attributing political motives to …. blog posts and deposition. We are particularly appalled at the insinuation by the retired judge that [the intern] is a political pawn and strongly condemn this character assassination. We also condemn all other statements that attempt to politicize the issue. Such statements are deeply disrespectful to [the intern] and trivialize her experience. These insinuations are also symptomatic of the manner in which issues of gender and power are turned into partisan political contests and we call upon all to resist such attempts.1. Shamnad Basheer, MHRD Chaired Professor of IP Law, NUJS2. Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor, NUJS3. Anirban Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, NUJS [On Leave]4. Lovely Dasgupta, Assistant Professor, NUJS5. Ruchira Goswami, Assistant Professor, NUJS6. Daniel Mathew, Assistant Professor, NUJS7. Nandan Nawn, Assistant Professor, NUJS8. Arup Kumar Poddar, Associate Professor, NUJS9. Tilottama Raychaudhuri, Assistant Professor, NUJS10. Shameek Sen, Assistant Professor, NUJS11. N.S. Sreenivasulu, Associate Professor, NUJS12. TVGNS Sudhakar, Associate Professor, NUJS