New Delhi: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) Vice Chancellor Dr Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, who has secured a clean chit in a sexual harassment case from the Calcutta High Court as well as the Supreme Court on technical grounds, is now facing intense student backlash, with protests demanding his immediate resignation.
WBNUJS is among the top National Law Universities in India. A faculty member had lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Dr Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, but the courts dismissed it since it had not been filed within six months of the alleged incident.
The Student Juridical Association (SJA), which organised an on-campus protest on 20 September near the Vice Chancellor’s office, issued a statement demanding the V-C’s “immediate and unconditional resignation”.
The statement read: “Our protest is not an isolated reaction to a single incident. It is a collective cry born out of months, even years, of silence, frustration, and disappointment. It is an action born out of desperation, post the grave allegations of sexual harassment levelled against the VC—which must mandatorily be included in his resume, as directed by the Hon’ble SC—the glaring lack of financial transparency, and the systematic pattern of administrative failures, persistent apathy, and growing disconnect between the administration and its students and faculty members.”
The SJA added that students were united in demanding accountability and the restoration of trust in the university’s leadership.
“NUJS is our home, and we speak up today because we care deeply about its future. We believe that the values of integrity, equality, and fairness that our university teaches must first be upheld within its own walls,” the statement added.
SC verdict: Complaint not lodged within time limit
On 12 September, the Supreme Court ruled that a faculty member’s sexual harassment complaint against the NUJS Vice Chancellor was time-barred. The alleged incident occurred in April 2023, while the complaint was formally lodged only in December 2023—a little beyond the six-month statutory limitation prescribed under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The faculty member argued that subsequent administrative actions, such as her removal from a director’s post and an inquiry into her alleged misuse of funds, amounted to continuing harassment. The apex court rejected this contention, holding that the April incident was a complete act in itself.
Upholding the Calcutta High Court decision, the Supreme Court dismissed the complaint as time-barred.
Yet, in an unusual move, the Supreme Court directed that the V-C must include this judgment in his resume: “It is advisable to forgive the wrongdoer, but not to forget the wrongdoing… The wrong which has been committed against the appellant may not be investigated on technical grounds, but it must not be forgotten. In this view of the matter, we direct that the incidents of alleged sexual harassment… may be forgiven but allowed to haunt the wrongdoer forever (sic).”
About V-C Dr Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti’s qualifications, the WBNUJS website says that “after graduating from the University of Calcutta, Dr Chakrabarti did his LLB, MA (political science) and LLM (tort and crime) from the University of Calcutta and got his PhD from the University of Burdwan on Probation System in the Administration of Criminal Justice in West Bengal”.
A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Prasanna B. Varale noted that there “may have been a wrong” on the part of the V-C, but due to the statutory bar, the complaint could not legally be sustained. But also, “it shouldn’t be forgotten”.
Earlier, when the local complaints committee dismissed the faculty member’s complaint as time-barred, the woman had challenged the decision through a writ petition. A single judge allowed her petition, noting that, apart from an intimidating, hostile work environment, she had faced threats of adverse employment consequences. The Supreme Court later reversed that relief.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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