Students of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) gheraoed the vice-chancellor on Saturday, demanding his resignation over a recent Supreme Court verdict that asked the vice-chancellor to mention in his resume “incidents of alleged sexual harassment”.

A student said they made representations before the executive council of the
university that met on Saturday morning. “After the Council members left, vice-chancellor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti refused to give in his papers. We have gheraoed him and will continue our protests till he resigns,” said the student.

In a letter to the executive council that includes sitting judges of the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court, and senior government officials, the Student Juridical Association cited “loss of institutional reputation”; “unsafe environment for female
students, staff and faculty”; “financial mismanagement and lack of transparency” as some of the reasons for demanding Chakrabarti’s resignation.

A female faculty member of the varsity had accused Chakrabarti of harassment on December 26, 2023.

The local complaint committee for North 24-Parganas, constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, rejected the complaint in March because it was barred by time.

The alleged incident of sexual harassment happened in April 2023, and the complaint was filed in December.

The complainant then approached the high court. A single judge of the high court quashed the order of the local complaint committee and directed a rehearing of the complaint on its merits.

The matter then reached a division bench of the high court that upheld the decision of the local complaint committee.

The case subsequently went to the Supreme Court. In an order dated September 12, the apex court said the division bench was not wrong in saying that the complaint was “time barred and is liable to be dismissed”.

The apex court, however, added: “The wrong which has been committed against the appellant may not be investigated on technical grounds, but it must not be forgotten.”

It added that the “judgment shall be made part of the resume” of the vice-chancellor.

Calls from Metro to vice-chancellor Chakrabarti went unanswered on Saturday evening.