Court allows Pachauri to go to US, Bolivia

A court here on Thursday allowed environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, accused in a sexual harassment case, to visit US and Bolivia to attend conferences on environmental issues.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan allowed Pachauri to travel to US from September 25 to October 2 where he is scheduled to meet various dignitaries and to Bolivia from October 10 to October 15.

Pachauri's counsel Ashish Dixit, while requesting to his client's plea be allowed, cited that the accused has duly complied with all conditions imposed on him whenever the court has granted him permission to travel abroad.

The magistrate also asked him to intimate about his arrival back to India to the investigating officer (IO) of the case and the court and also file a copy of his travel tickets.

After a sexual harassment complaint was filed by a younger colleague, Pachauri stepped down as chairperson of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February and proceeded on leave from TERI (The Energy Research Institute) as its director general.

A decision was taken to remove Pachauri as head of the non-profit think tank TERI in July. The body's governing council replaced him with Ajay Mathur, currently head of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, a government body.

However, in a hearing last month, his counsel informed the court that Pachauri was still TERI director general and he has not been officially relieved of the obligations by the organisation.