IIT-M Professors Get Pre-Arrest Bail From Madras High Court In PhD Scholar Sexual Harassment Case

While granting bail, Justice G Jayachandran observed that there was no reasons to deny bail to the professors as no allegation was directly made against them. The only allegation against the professors was that they had failed to take any action against the prime accused.

The court directed the professors not to leave the state without the prior approval of the police. It was also directed that the professors were not to leave the country without the approval of the trial court. Considering that the professors were respected academicians who may have to travel outside the country for research purposes or seminars etc, the court also directed that in such situations, the trial court may grant permission to leave the country.

Background

The defacto complainant was mentally, physically and sexually harassed by her batchmates, the first and second accused multiple times over the course of her PhD program. She gave a complaint to the Internal Committee of the Institute in 2020 and detailed enquiry was conducted into the allegations.

The institute however did not find any substantive evidence but with an intent to give moral peace to the complainant, permitted her to continue her thesis without any interference from the accused. The Committee further asked the accused not to enter the campus during the period of defacto complainant's work/thesis and lab hours and to not have any sort of interaction with the complainant.

The professors had moved the court stating that in all these allegations and hearings, no speck of allegation was levelled against them but strangely they were arrayed as accused in the FIR. There was no criminality attributed to them and their names were included only in the passing.