Compulsory retirement for IIT-K professor on sexual harassment charges

NEW DELHI: Accused of sexually harassing a student on exchange from a foreign university, a professor from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) will be given compulsory retirement. The decision, an unprecedented one, was taken by the board of governors of the institute a few days ago.

The matter came to light in early September when the student filed a complaint of “inappropriate conduct” against the professor. According to reports by Hindustan Times, Indo-Asian News Service and Scroll.in, the IIT-K administration allegedly tried to suppress the issue and, at least initially, did not take any action. This prompted the woman to approach her country’s embassy in India and the women's cell. With the embassy’ intervention, an official probe was initiated.

In a statement, the deputy director of IIT-K, Manindra Agrawaltold the HT: “A complaint was filed by a girl student against a faculty member for inappropriate conduct. The Internal Complaints Committee of the institute started investigations under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act following Supreme Court guidelines. Immediately, on the recommendations of ICC, the said faculty member was removed from teaching responsibilities of the course in which the girl student was registered.”

The statement further said that IIT-K has a zero-tolerance policy against any “deviant behaviour” and strict action will be taken once the recommendations of the panel were submitted.

The investigation was carried out for three months proving the accused professor guilty of charges. A senior faculty member told News18: “The board decided that the accused professor should be given compulsory retirement so that such incidents do not recur in the future. The process for retirement has been initiated". The administration of the institute is yet to release an official statement on the matter.

As reported by HT, the woman was enrolled under a student exchange program with other countries. The study exchange program lasts from six months to two years. The student was under a senior professor of the civil engineering department.