Madras High Court wants to know possibility of including parent representative in Kalakshetra Internal Complaints Committee

Madras HC records submission that Kalakshetra Foundation will take sexual harassment complaints seriously. Court seeks to include parent rep. in ICC by Sep 25. Foundation warned of contempt if accused allowed on campus. Students allege senior students, faculty harassed for supporting complainants. Foundation open to fine tuning policy.

The Madras High Court on Thursday recorded the submission made on behalf of Kalakshetra Foundation that every complaint of sexual harassment within its campus would be taken seriously and acted upon promptly in accordance with law. After doing so, the court wanted to know by September 25 as to whether the foundation would be able to include a parent representative in its Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

Justice N. Seshasayee asked Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan to take instructions from the foundation on the possiblity of including the parent representative. The judge also said, the foundation would be inviting contempt of court proceedings if the suspended faculty member facing sexual harassment charge was allowed to enter the campus despite a specific restraint order passed by the court in April this year.

Senior Counsel R. Vaigai, representing seven students who had approached the court for formulation of a proper safety policy, told the court that the accused had been visiting the campus regularly in the guise of dropping his wife serving as a dance teacher there, and also in the pretext of attending a craft exhibition. She said that he was in the institution even during the Onam celebration held on September 10.

Ms. Vaigai also complained of some senior students and faculty members being harassed now for having supported the students who had lodged sexual harassment complaints. “Only those who are friends with the perpetrator of the crime are engaged as paid interns in the institute. He enjoys an all-prevasive control over the administration. This amounts to insititutional violence against the students for having questioned sexual harassment and having knocked at the doors of justice,” she said.

The Senior Counsel also said that the writ petitioners had certain reservations over the policy now framed by the foundation for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment. However, the ASG told the court that the foundation was always open to fine tuning the policy framed by the governing board and claimed that the institution had never shirked from its responsibility of taking necessary action on complaints received from students and faculty members.