Two anonymous posts, published on an Instagram page called Seven Angry Women, on 19 September 2023, purportedly by two Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) students, have now escalated into the Gujarat High Court calling for a “high-level inquiry” into the affairs of the college and its faculty.
The Instagram handle is full of various sexual and verbal harassment cases that a plethora of students have faced at different law schools in the country. The lack of proper complaint mechanisms in these top-tier institutes has left students with no other option but to take to Instagram, to make their voices heard.
Everything About The Incident:
The posts published on Instagram last year referred to the students as “vocal victim #54” and “vocal victim #55”.
“I am in 2nd year GNLU, I was raped by my own batchmate,” says one post.
“Hi, am from GNLU (he/they) over the past few months here I have been subjected to a lot of hate speech and homophobia among the university campus (sic),” reads the first paragraph of the other post.
A student, on the condition of anonymity, told ‘ThePrint’ that within two hours of the posts, the entire college was aware of the situation and nearly 200-300 students in the girls’ hostel got together to discuss the issue late on 19 September night. To show solidarity with the victims, they also wore pink to classes.
However, quite unfortunately, the institute took no immediate action, rather, it set up a fact-finding committee much later, only a day after the Gujarat High Court took suo motu cognizance of an Ahmedabad Mirror report about the posts on 25 September 2023.
Over the past few months, the Gujarat High Court has reprimanded the college authorities for failing to take action. While taking cognizance of the posts, the High Court noted the news report “does not suggest any action taken by the administration for want of formal complaint, which in our opinion would not be a correct approach”.
When the fact-finding committee formed by the law college finally submitted its report in a sealed cover to the High Court late, in February 2024, Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P. Mayee called the revelations “scary”.
The bench was quoted as saying by The Indian Express, “And the involvement of the GNLU administration, suppressing the whole incident…. and this is not two incidents… incidents of molestation, rape, discrimination, homophobia, favouritism, suppression of voices, lack of existence of internal complaint committee (ICC), lack of information to the students about ICC.”
Adding on, it said, “If students of law, their voices are suppressed, who will speak in the country?… We are all responsible for this situation…This requires high-level inquiry into the affairs of GNLU and its faculty.”
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What Has Been Done About The Matter?
The situation is ‘scary’ because of prevailing anxious efforts to dilute the matter. A day after the Gujarat High Court took cognizance of the article mentioning the posts, GNLU sprung into action. On 26 September 2023, the institute set up a fact-finding committee headed by retired IPS and former Gujarat DGP Keshav Kumar.
An email, from the Registrar, was sent out to all the students, to disseminate information about the so-formed committee, on the following day. The email said that the committee also comprised of three GNLU faculty members, namely, Prof Anjani Singh Tomar, Prof. Fakkiresh Sakkarnaikar, and Assistant Prof. Nidhi Buch, and urged all students to step up if they have any information related to the anonymous posts.
“The Fact-Finding Committee is dedicated to ensuring a safe and confidential platform for students to share their insights or experiences,” it added.
On September 30, the Registrar sent another email saying that any female student may make a statement related to the issue to Prof. Tomar by meeting her in person, on or before 5 October 202. It also promised the students that “the statements will be recorded by maintaining total confidentiality”.
When the case came up in October, the High Court criticised the Registrar for the affidavit filed by him on 9 September 2023, saying, “seems to be an overt anxious effort to dilute the whole matter by making inquiries in a summary way”.
The order recognized that the affidavit said there does not appear to be any substance in the anonymous post quoted in the Ahmedabad Mirror news article and also said that the court is taking “strong exception” to the Registrar’s stand in the affidavit.
Adding on, the court said that the Registrar’s affidavit also had two reports attached to it, wherein one such report was submitted by the warden claiming that she communicated with more than 80 students in the girl’s hostel, but none of them had any information about the alleged incident.
While the other report was submitted by Prof. Tomar, who told the Registrar “in one line that no student came to meet her or deposed in relation to the email circulated by the Registrar”.
The High Court order also noted that Prof. Tomar was made a part of the panel, despite the fact that she submitted a report on 7 October 2023 “dismissing the whole incident”.
The court interpreted the entire situation. It said that “we strongly disapprove” of how the law institute is dealing with the allegations, and “more so, the manner in which, the Registrar, Gujarat National Law University has acted on receipt of the report of the incident on 19.09.2023.”
“It seems that the University Authorities are making effort to cover up the whole issue, to save the image of the institution,” the court said, observing that the complainant had still not been identified and that the professor claiming that no student had come to depose “reflects the insensitivity of the university authorities”.
During the 11 October hearing, the lawyer appearing for GNLU informed the court that he would personally look into the matter in his best capacity as the Gujarat advocate general to ensure that the fact-finding panel is formed afresh with “independent respectable members of the society having no concern with the institution at all”.
Thus, the fact-finding committee, first constituted by the college on 26 September, was then reconstituted on 20 October, comprising of the former Gujarat High Court judge Justice Harsha Devani, secretary of the Gujarat State Human Rights Commission Bhargavi Das, and Associate Prof. at the National Forensic Sciences University Surbhi Mathur.
Nearly four months later, the panel’s report made its way to the court in a sealed cover on 22 February, and it was opened on 28 February 2024.
Trust Shattered:
The fact that such grave issues of sexual and verbal harassment have been taking place in some of the topmost universities in the country, has shattered the trust of students as well as parents. The Instagram handle ‘Seven Angry Women’ has turned into a page wherein students from some of the most reputed law schools have opened up about shocking and heart-wrenching incidents they faced there.
Students from NALSAR, HNLU, CLC, NLUD, and other prestigious law schools have expressed their feelings through this page. A grievance that is common among all of them is the lack of proper complaint mechanisms in the university and also the lack of information given to students regarding these. Moreover, the professors and the authorities in charge try to shut down these cases instead of taking action in the right direction.
When the GNLU matter came up in November last year, the court was also informed that GNLU is taking adequate steps to sensitise the students about gender issues, adopting a “zero tolerance policy” regarding sexual harassment or violation of the dignity of the students in any manner.
“All this happened in a tier 1 law school, there is no grievance redress mechanism where I can take this up, there are near to no resources I can avail, & as always I cried a bit about my situation and how helpless & suffocated I feel being here, but as always didn’t really had any escape, so cried and went back to sleep,” said one of the two Instagram posts.
Also, a student told ‘The Print’ that the trust in the institution seems to have shattered since these posts.
“The trust has of course gone down since the incident…The POSH sessions are being held now, but this incident dates back to the last semester. Every Monday, we get a mandatory 70 percent attendance reminder. Why can’t the faculty send email reminders on ragging or harassment? The college did not handle it very well,” the student asserted.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The Print, Indian Express, The Hindu
Find the blogger: Unusha Ahmad
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