FEDCUTA Press Release, 25.08.17

MALAFIDE INQUIRY AGAINST PROF NIVEDITA MENON

FEDCUTA is shocked to learn that the JNU administration has adopted a biased and mala fide procedure to institute an enquiry against Professor Nivedita Menon, eminent academic and well-known feminist who heads the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Thought at the School of International Studies, JNU. We are appalled to learn that Professor Bidyut Chakravarti, has been appointed as the head of the inquiry committee against Nivedita Menon, even though it has been brought to the notice of the administration that Prof. Menon had deposed before the committee against Prof. Chakravarti in an inquiry in a sexual harassment complaint in 2007. The appointment of Professor Chakravarti (who is an external member of JNU’s Executive Council) as head of an enquiry committee against Professor Menon, who testified against him reeks of bias amounting to a breach of Professor Menon’s right to a fair and impartial inquiry. 

It is shocking that members of JNU’s Academic Council first learnt about  this inquiry committee constituted by the Executive Council in July 2017 and headed by Prof. Bidyut Chakravarty, when some members of the Academic Council received a letter inviting them to depose in front of the committee.  It then became known that this inquiry committee had been set up to enquire into the alleged entry of students into the 142nd Academic Council meeting held on 26 December 2016. The terms of reference of the said committee were not made public nor was it clear which service rules were invoked to constitute this committee. In the last few months Prof. Nivedita Menon has been made the focus of this inquiry even though there were several teachers outside the meeting on that day.

Although Prof. Menon was served a notice to appear before the Committee, she was denied her right to be made aware of the ‘complaints’ that were central to this inquiry. Further, she was not given a chance to understand the nature of the depositions received by AC members and how they formed prima facie adequate and sufficient grounds for instituting an inquiry against her. 

It is a matter of public record that a complaint of sexual harassment was filed against Bidyut Chakravarti by a woman working in a subordinate capacity at the Gandhi Bhavan in the University of Delhi. Professor Menon, who was at the time also teaching in the Department of Political Science in the University of Delhi had testified against Bidyut Chakravarti. Subsequently, the University of Delhi had debarred Bidyut Chakravarti from all administrative posts and supervisory duties in the University for three years.We are deeply shocked that the JNU administration ignored the fact that the nomination of Prof. Chakravarti as the chair of this inquiry against Prof. Menon is a violation of the principles of natural justice and the right to a fair procedure. Surely the JNU administration and its Executive Council should abide by the principles of a fair inquiry and ensure that such an enquiry should not be headed by someone who has grounds for bias. 

The JNU administration has exposed its own mala fide intentions by ignoring Prof. Menon’s plea to reconstitute the inquiry committee, given her legitimate apprehension of bias. Instead they have sent her repeated letters asking her to appear before the inquiry committee. This unethical and persistent harassment of an eminent scholar with an international reputation is yet another instance of the backlash being faced by feminists who stand up to sexism and sexual harassment in their professional spheres. It highlights the strategy adopted by people in positions of power, of trivialising sexual harassment and using their official positions to take revenge against women who have complained or testified against them. 

We would like to stress that the very basis on which the inquiry committee was formed is flawed and motivated and attacks the democratic and open functioning of a prestigious Centre of higher education in India. Further, we condemn the malafide, motivated and baseless charges against Professor Nivedita Menon and the JNU administration’s attempts to target her and demand the immediate withdrawal of these charges and dissolution of the enquiry committee.  We further demand that Prof Bidyut Chakravarti be debarred from any decision making on matters related to sexual harassment and/or GSCASH as an Executive Council member at JNU.

     Nandita Narain                                                                                                         Ayesha Kidwai

(President FEDCUTA)                                                                                         (Secretary FEDCUTA)

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