GNLU tells HC it has reconstituted fact-finding committee to inquire into rape, harassment allegations

Ahmedabad: The Gandhinagar-based Gujarat National Law University on Thursday told the Gujarat High Court that it has reconstituted its fact-finding committee (FFC) to inquire into alleged harassment of a queer student and rape of a female student by a batchmate.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) based on a newspaper report on the incidents.

In an affidavit, the GNLU said it has reconstituted both the FFC and internal complaint committee (ICC) following the court's directives.

It was taking steps to sensitise students about gender issues and had a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment or the violation of dignity of students in any matter, the varsity said.

The court adjourned the hearing to the third week of December with a direction to GNLU to file an affidavit after concluding the inquiry and taking appropriate action.

The court had, during the last hearing on October 11, come down heavily on the university for not carrying out inquiry into the incident and directed it to reconstitute both FFC and ICC which had been found to be defunct.

As per the newspaper report of September 22, a male student of GNLU who identified as queer had faced harassment on campus because of the gender identity while a female student had accused a batchmate of raping her.

The ICC of the varsity was not functioning and its spokesperson claimed to have not received any formal complaint about the incidents, the court had noted earlier.

It then directed the university to record the two students' statements and take legal action if the allegations appeared to be genuine.