Pachauri's extension of stay in Sharjah was not deliberate: Court

A sessions court here on Wednesday set aside a magistrate court order asking TERI executive vice chairman R.K Pachauri to fortfeit his surety bond and said one-day extension of Pachauri's Sharjah trip was "neither deliberate nor intentional".

Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kumar Tripathi set aside a magisterial court order of February 19 and said: "Extension of one day schedule of return of revisionist (Pachauri) was beyond his control and his act was neither deliberate nor intentional, therefore, learned magistrate was not justified to dismiss the application of revisionist on February 19 and forfeit the surety bonds furnished by revisionist at the time of his travel."

A magistrate court on February 19 ordered Pachauri to fortfeit his surety bond of Rs.4 lakh after failing to return to India on February 18.

The court on February 15 granted permission to Pachauri to go to Sharjah from February 16 to 18 where he was to be conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award.

However, there was change in the date of arrival of Pachauri from Sharjah.

Therefore, his counsel Ashish Dikshit filed an application for giving intimation to the court regarding change of his date of arrival on February 18, which was dismissed on next date by a magistrate.

A charge sheet was filed by police in a sexual harassment case against TERI executive vice chairman R.K Pachauri on Tuesday.

Pachauri was accused of sexually harassing a woman colleague in 2015. He stepped down as chairperson of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February last year and proceeded on leave from TERI where he was the director general.

In November, the woman researcher who accused him of sexual harassment quit her job at TERI, alleging she was treated badly. TERI denied the charge.

On February 8, Pachauri was appointed the executive vice chairman of the organisation. After severe criticism, TERI on February 12 asked him to proceed on indefinite leave.