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Students of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India, Kolkata, took out a protest on Monday, September 8, against allowing an official, accused of sexual harassment, to resume his role within the campus, more than a year after he was forced to work from home. The complaint against him is still being probed by the Internal Committee (IC) of the institute. After a day-long protest by the students, during which they gheraoed the Vice Chancellor’s office, the order reinstating the official within the campus has been revoked. He will continue to work from home.
“We were not informed about the order asking him to rejoin the campus, and were surprised to learn about it. This happened on September 8, and we took out the protest at 10.30 in the morning, which lasted till 5 in the evening. We were then assured that the situation has been reversed to the previous arrangement, in which the accused official shall continue to work from home, away from the campus,” said the students’ union president Dhivahar Muthuveeran.
Pointing out that the complaint against the official was raised by a former student and faculty member, the students released a press note to express their position. "For someone with such a history to be reinstated in one of the most powerful and sensitive positions in our institute is unacceptable," they said.
They also brought up previous instances of sexual harassment complaints within the institute. In 2015, the IC had found two professors guilty of sexual harassment of female students, after which they were asked to go on compulsory retirement. However, 10 years later, the professors approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to challenge the IC's decision, and served legal notice to the survivors.
In their press note, the students demand the quashing of the CAT petition and include the survivors as parties in the 2015 IC case. They also ask for the completion of the ongoing IC inquiry against the higher official, which began more than a year ago. Earlier this year, the chairperson of the institute–actor and BJP politician Suresh Gopi–signed the chargesheet in the case, after allegedly stalling it for weeks, and delaying the IC enquiry.