A group of JNU teachers has taken issue with the working of the varsity’s panel for probing sexual harassment cases, alleging that its “processes are perverted”.
The charge on Thursday came even as JNU’s Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) sought to make a clarification about DCW data which says that the prestigious institution has seen the highest number of such cases for a Delhi varsity since 2013.
The group of teachers at Jawaharlal Nehru University also alleged that the confidentiality with regards to complaints is being “blatantly violated”, leading to defamation of complainants and the putting of their integrity on “public trial”.
Sexual harassment complaints at JNU are probed by GSCASH, which was instituted in 1999 under the Vishakha guidelines of Supreme Court.
Demanding that JNU be a “gender-sensitive and gender-just” campus, a group of teachers has written an open letter to the varsity administration seeking their intervention to improve the functioning of GSCASH.
“In the current scenario, confidentiality with regards to complaints enquired into by the GSCASH is blatantly violated by some teacher representatives. Some of them assume that a ‘struggle for the rights of teachers’ can entail victim- blaming and defamation of complainants,” they claimed.
“The integrity of members of GSCASH is put on public trial in the name of guaranteeing the ‘principles of natural justice’ to defendants. The evaluation of a GSCASH enquiry report is done by persons not bound by the oath of confidentiality and impartiality,” they added.