HC stays NCSC's recommendation to lodge FIR against four faculties of IIT Kanpur

The Allahabad High Court today stayed the recommendations of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) asking IIT Kanpur's director to lodge an FIR against four faculty members for committing atrocities against an assistant professor belonging to a scheduled caste.

The bench comprising justices Krishna Murari and Ashok Kumar passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Ishan Sharma and three others.

The court also stayed its recommendation to stay the appointment of one of the petitioners, Rajiv Shekhar, as director of IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, and direction to remove the faculty members from the membership of the Departmental Faculty Affairs Committee of the Aerospace Department.

The court, however, clarified that the administration of IIT Kanpur might proceed to hold disciplinary proceedings against the professors in accordance with law, if they so desired.

The court had issued a notice to the commission and directed assistant professor S Sadrela to a file counter affidavit in the case.

Sadrela, an assistant professor in the Department of the Aerospace, had accused the four faculty members of harassment and filed a case against them with the NCSC.

The petitioners in their plea had contended was that the commission had acted beyond its jurisdiction and it had no power to pass such recommendations.