The Supreme Court has, in an order on November 17, expunged a portion of its September 12 order against the then vice-chancellor of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences.

In its September 12 order, the apex court said: “We direct that the incidents of alleged sexual harassment on the part of respondent No. 1 (then VC) may be forgiven but allowed to haunt the wrongdoer forever. Thus, it is directed that this judgment shall be made part of the resume of respondent No. 1, compliance of which shall be strictly ensured by him personally.”

Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, who retired on November 3 as NUJS VC, moved the Supreme Court to have this portion of the order expunged because it was “derogatory” when the charges against him could not be substantiated.

A professor had accused Chakrabarti of sexual harassment on December 26, 2023.

A division bench of the apex court consisting of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Prasanna B. Varale said: “Accordingly, we delete the aforesaid sentence beginning from ‘Thus’ and ending with ‘personally’ contained in paragraph No. 34 for the reason that we have not indicted the applicant/ respondent on merits in any manner though the matter may have been argued on merits.”

Chakrabarti told Metro: “I found the September 12 order fallacious because although guilt could not be established against me, the apex court asked me to mention the judgment in my resume. This was derogatory. I sought relief. The same bench of the Supreme Court granted me the relief on November 17.”