Sexual harassment probe against VC 'constrained'

CHANDIGARH: The Panjab University committee looking into a teacher's sexual harassment complaint against vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Grover feels "constrained" and will go further only after the Ministry of Human Resource Development or the chancellor's office authorises it.

In its meeting on August 7, the PU Committee Against Sexual Harassment (PUCASH) had decided to refer the matter back to the registrar for seeking specific authorisation from the ministry as suggested by the chancellor's office. A letter from PUCASH chairperson Nishtha Jaswal will be tabled in the PU syndicate meeting on August 20. The committee is ready to take up the matter that the syndicate has referred to it, but only after receiving express authorisation from the chancellor or the ministry.

On August 7, it also took note of the January 9 letter from ministry's university policy director Venkata Sastry Yedla to the PU registrar, which stated that the office of the chancellor-employer in the case of the vice-chancellor-had communicated to the ministry that the PUCASH will look into the complaint.

The chancellor's office had written that the PU already had a committee capable of looking into the matter. So the chancellor won't form any new panel over this body formed under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act, 2013.

Registrar Col G S Chadha (retd) replied to Yedla on July 10 that necessary directives were required to enjoin the PUCASH to complete the inquiry within the government-specified time.

It was decided in the last syndicate meeting to extend the term of the current PUCASH by two months (from July 31 to September 30) to let it finish the investigation against Grover.