Four IIT Kanpur professors found guilty of harassing junior under SC/ST Act

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 6: Four senior faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have been found guilty of harassing a junior colleague under the SC/ST Act.

Following a complaint from the junior faculty member, the IIT Kanpur Board of Governors (BoG) instituted an inquiry committee headed by former Justice Saeed-Uz-Zaman Siddiqi.

The victim Subrahmanyam Saderla, who is also an alumnus of the institute alleged that during a seminar in October last year, the four accused professors “continuously asked questions and joked in such a manner as to make him feel ridiculed”. The three-member fact-finding committee found the four professors guilty of harassing Saderla and recommended suitable action as per the SC/ ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

The inquiry was conducted against Prof Ishan Sharm, Prof C S Upadhyaya, Prof Sanjay Mittal and Prof Rajiv Shekhar, presently serving as the Director of IIT Dhanbad.

On the other hand, a section of the Institute community feels that there is a misuse of SC/ST Act and Prof Ishan Sharma is one of the best teachers in the institute. One of the faculty members of IIT Kanpur, on condition of anonymity, said, “Cant the four top IIT-K professors even ask tough questions? The selection committee has all rights to ask any question and cross questions during the recruitment process, it cant be termed as humiliation. This is a clear case of misuse of SC/ST Act.”

An alumnus of the institute said that a professor hired from reservation quota, not competent enough to answer questions in the seminar from fellow professors charges them with ‘harassment’ under SC/ST Act.

In April, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC) miffed over inaction on part of the institute administration, summoned IIT-K Director along with other senior faculty members and asked submit their report on the allegations by Saderla.