Around 200 alumni of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, have written an open letter questioning the institution for allegedly initiating disciplinary action against two female student facilitators, for sharing details about sexual harassment by a student of the university against an outsider. The letter also placed several demands before NLSIU to provide more support to survivors of sexual assault.
According to an alumnus who spoke to The Hindu, a person (not a student), who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a student of the NLSIU, reached out to the two student SHIC (Sexual Harassment Inquiry Committee) facilitators in March. She explained that the purpose of the student facilitators is to act as a point of contact and to provide a support system to the victims.
“The victim was trying to explore her options with regards to filing a police complaint or initiating formal proceedings at NLSIU. As she was not a student and was not sure about initiating action, she decided to alert the NLSIU community about the perpetrator through internal emails and social media pages. She asked the facilitators to do the same on her behalf,” said Mukta Joshi, from the class of 2019, NLSIU.
She added that the student facilitators then approached the Sexual Harassment Policy Advisor, who was also a faculty member, who told them to use their discretion and did not raise any objections. Hence, the students went ahead and shared the name of the alleged perpetrator and the details of the assault on emails and the Facebook group.
After this, the alleged perpetrator filed a disciplinary complaint against the student facilitators. Taking cognisance of it, the university initiated proceedings and found the facilitators guilty of “major misconduct”, the alumni members said.
“As a penalty, NLSIU directed that they either issue a public apology or pay a significant monetary fine,” said the letter, adding that they chose to pay the monetary fine.
The student facilitators have now appealed to the Executive Council of NLSIU as the next course of action, according to sources.
Responding to the allegations, NLSIU, in a long statement on Thursday, said the open letter “misrepresents the action taken by the university against the students as a failure to take sexual harassment seriously.”
“In fact, the action was taken against the students for their failure to adhere to the ‘NLSIU’s Principles of Conduct, 2002,’ and ‘NLSIU’s IT Policies’,” said the statement, adding, “The student facilitators are bound to maintain confidentiality of the parties involved throughout the course of the complaint process, whether or not it results in formal proceedings before the SHIC”.
“The student facilitators have bypassed the sexual harassment mechanisms provided by the university which they were entrusted with upholding in their role as facilitators. The university takes matters of sexual harassment very seriously. NLSIU has never prevented its students from discussing issues of sexual harassment. However, to use NLSIU digital resources to publicly name someone in a matter that would be prejudicial to that person’s reputation is not conducive to the kind of community living that we would like to nurture at NLSIU,” the statement added.
