The vice-chancellor of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences said on Sunday that the allegations against him were “false, vexatious and vindictive” and called the demand for his resignation by students “unjust”.
A female faculty member had accused VC Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti of sexual harassment.
The students had gheraoed Chakrabarti between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. He was allowed to leave the campus on Sunday morning.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Chakrabarti said: “Certain observations are made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court without any inquiry on merits, without testing of evidence, and without an opportunity of hearing.”
“The complaint against me is false, vexatious, and vindictive.”
The statement added: “So, our legal team is availing legal remedies as are available to us under the law....”
Chakrabarti said in the statement that the complaint was filed in retaliation for the constitution of an inquiry against the complainant.
“Even the Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed in para 30 that the complaint was filed in retaliation on 26.12.2023, immediately after the Executive Council meeting on 21.12.2023, which had resolved to inquire into diverse acts of misconduct on the part of the complainant,” the statement said.
In an order dated September 12, the Supreme Court said that “the appellant initiated the complaint on 26.12.2023, immediately after the Executive Council meeting on 21.12.2023, which had resolved to inquire into diverse acts of misconduct on the part of the appellant, that could give an impression that the complaint was filed in retaliation.”
The students are demanding his resignation on multiple grounds, one of them being a recent Supreme Court verdict that asked the vice-chancellor to mention in his resume “incidents of alleged sexual harassment”.
Chakrabarti left the campus after “he was already under gherao for more than 20 hours”, said a student. “He had a flight to Delhi,” a student said.
“If he does not resign by October 31, we will resume the protests from November 1,” said the student.
A statement issued by the protesters on Sunday evening stated that they had presented a “non-exhaustive list of 47 demands covering infrastructural, academic, and financial issues” to the VC on Sunday.
“The Supreme Court has said in its verdict that the wrongdoing cannot be forgotten, which is why it has asked the VC to mention the verdict in his resume. The statement by the VC goes against the order of the Supreme Court. Had the complaint been baseless, the Supreme Court would not have passed this order,” an advocate representing the complainant told Metro on Sunday evening.