NUJS should disassociate from Ganguly, urges faculty

Demanding action against Justice (retd) A.K. Ganguly who allegedly sexually harassed an intern, faculty members of the National University of Judicial Sciences (NUJS) Wednesday asked the institution to disassociate itself from the former apex court judge, who is an honorary professor.

The members showed solidarity with the former law intern and a NUJS graduate who accused Ganguly of sexual harassment, and urged "the NUJS administration to take immediate steps to see to it that necessary action is initiated against the former judge".

"Considering the nature of allegations, and noting that (victim) was a student, and the former judge was an honorary professor of NUJS at the time of incident, we feel that the latter's continued association with our institution undermines the ideals of NUJS, an institution that has always strived to teach and foster justice, including gender justice," the faculty members said in a statement.

"We call upon the NUJS administration to appropriately address this matter with utmost urgency. Till he (Ganguly) is exonerated from all the charges leveled by (intern), the university should, at the very least, dissociate itself from him," read the statement signed by 12 of the faculty members.

The faculty members also criticised Ganguly who Monday wrote to Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam denying that he had sexually harassed the intern and alleged there was a palpable design to malign him because of the "judgments he had given against powerful quarters".

"We also note with concern the unwarranted statements from several quarters attributing political motives to (intern's) blog posts and deposition. We are particularly appalled at the insinuation by the retired judge that (intern) is a political pawn and strongly condemn this character assassination," added the teachers.

The statement by the teachers comes after the intern, in her response to Ganguly's letter to the CJI, said on her blog Monday that "those who have been spreading rumours and politicising the issue are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue".