On Friday, December 20, the Calcutta High Court said that it will not interfere with the preliminary report filed by the Internal Committee (IC) of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, in a complaint of sexual harassment against a top official of the institute. The court was hearing a writ petition filed by the accused official, challenging the preliminary report. He contended that the findings of the IC exceeded the scope of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013.
Justice Kausik Chanda, hearing the plea, said that the SRFTI should not take any coercive measures against the accused, based on the preliminary report. However, the institute had not taken any action against the accused for nearly two months after the preliminary report was submitted by the IC, on October 30. The report had been placed before the governing council led by the chairperson of the institute, actor and Bharatiya Janata Party Union Minister of State Suresh Gopi, before the second stage of the enquiry could begin. However, in the time that lapsed, the accused official had approached the High Court, challenging the report and claiming that he had not been given a chance to cross-examine 29 witnesses examined by the IC.
Sukanta Ghosh, counsel for the IC, told the court that the accused official had not availed himself of the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses. In its December 20 order, the court said that the IC must give opportunity to the petitioner to cross-examine the 29 witnesses. The court also added that the committee must complete the final enquiry within six months of the date of the order. The POSH Act says that the IC must complete an enquiry into a complaint of sexual harassment within 90 days of receiving the complaint, and may extend it by another 90 days for valid reasons. The complainant in this case, a former student and faculty of the institute, had filed her complaint in May this year.
On November 4, SRFTI students had observed a protest in connection with the case. They gheraoed the director, seeking an explanation for the sudden resignation of Professor Putul Mahmood, a National Award winning filmmaker, at a time the IC investigation was going on against the top official. Professor Putul had earlier been a member of the IC, during which the reports she submitted had found certain professors guilty and resulted in their expulsion. The Students Union of the SRFTI asked if Putul’s resignation was forced as a warning to the current members of the IC, who were dealing with the sexual harassment case against the top official.
During its preliminary enquiry, the IC had recommended that the accused official should not be present in the campus during the investigation after which the institute had ordered his transfer. However, he challenged the transfer order at the High Court and got it quashed. He has since been working away from the campus.
SRFTI, an autonomous body that comes under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, faced serious allegations of sexual harassment in earlier years when a student spoke out about the abuse she faced from certain professors and another student.
