Gujarat HC Takes Suo Motu Cognizance Of A News Report About A Rape Case & Queer Student Harassment At GNLU, Seeks Report

Terming the incidents as ‘issues of grave concern’ having a direct impact on the psychological and physical well-being of the students, the bench of Justice AS Supehia and Justice MR Mengdey has issued a notice to the Registrar and Head, Academic Affairs, GNLU.

The University administration has been directed to identify and record the statements of the victim students by maintaining total confidentiality. If the statements are genuine, necessary steps should be taken as per law, the Court further ordered.

The Court has also said that the statement of the rape victim should be recorded by a female member/professor of the university.

The Court has also called for a report on this matter from the University by the next date of hearing, in which the names of members of the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) have also to be specified.

“This court shall also be apprised of the norms or standard of procedure or regulation adopted by the University in dealing with the issues of harassment or ragging meted out to the students,” the Court further ordered while making the notice returnable on October 10.

#JustIN | #GujaratHighCourt takes suo moto cognizance of a newspaper report pertaining to two separate incidents concerning #GujaratNationalLawUniversity

1. Rape allegations levelled by a law student against her batchmate.

2. Alleged harassment meted out to a queer student. pic.twitter.com/7h4FDY5vWa

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 25, 2023

It may be noted that as per Daily Ahmedabad Mirror, a queer student has accused the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) of fostering a homophobic culture on the campus. In a separate case, a female student of GNLU has accused her batch mate of rape.

Though no complaints have been made by the victims, however, they have posted their grievances, anonymously, on the social media handle of all the National Law Universities.

In his post, the queer student alleged that he was made to ‘feel bad’ about being queer and was ‘bashed’ for not being liked by anyone in the boys' hostel and how he ‘did not belong’ there. He also claimed that there was no grievance redressal mechanism available at the campus.

In her post, the rape victim alleged that she was raped by a batchmate after intoxicating her and made took her videos and threatened to leak the videos if she raised an alarm or talked about it.