- (1.) The petitioner, who retired as a Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi1 in January 2011 but who was subsequently re-employed as a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi2 upto 30 July 2014, has filed this petition to assail the order dated 26 April 2014 by which he was informed by the Institute that in view of the complaint that was received from a girl student of his Department regarding allegation of sexual misconduct and in view of the report submitted by the Women's Grievance Cell which examined the complaint, his re-employment as a Professor in the Institute stands discontinued with immediate effect.
(2.) It transpires from the records of the writ petition that after the petitioner retired as a Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology of the University in the month of January 2011, he applied for re-employment. A letter dated 20 July 2012 was sent to the petitioner by the University informing him that the Executive Council of the University in its meeting held on 29 July 2012 had been pleased to re-employ him as a Professor and that if he was willing to accept the offer, he could submit his joining report to the Director of the Institute. The petitioner accepted the terms and conditions stipulated in the order and was deputed to the Department of Civil Engineering of the Institute for a period of one year or till the post was filled up on a regular basis. Before the term of one year was come to an end on 30 July 2013, the petitioner moved an application for extension of his re-employment as a Professor. It needs to be noted that the erstwhile Institute of Technology of the University became the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi with effect from 29 June 2012 under the provisions of the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2012. A communication dated 10/11 December 2013 was sent to the petitioner by the Institute extending his re-employment for a further period of one year with effect from 30 July 2013 on the existing terms and conditions. The term of re-employment of the petitioner as a Professor in the Institute, therefore, stood extended upto 30 July 2014.
(3.) On 18 April 2014, a girl student who was studying in Part-IV in the Department of Civil Engineering of the Institute submitted a complaint to the Director of the Institute that she had been sexually harassed by the petitioner and the complaint is as follows :- "I wish to bring to your notice an incident of great concern and sorrow that happened on 18 April 2014 at around 5:30 pm. I was sexually harassed by a senior professor, Virendra Singh (ex H.O.D. and ex Dean), of my department after he took me to a lonely place saying that he wanted me to have a look at the new apartment he had purchased. He first invited me to have tea with him at Vishwanath Temple and then asked me to accompany him to Lanka as he wanted to drink lassi. I tried to settle him to have his drink at the temple but he was adamant on going to Lanka. Out of respect, as he is the senior most professor of our department, I followed him dutifully to his car. On our way we met Prof. K.P. Singh. After the drink he said that he wanted to visit his newly purchased flat to check progress of its work and I had no option but to follow him. In the lonely apartment after we passed the guards he put his arm on my shoulder. When I resisted he asked me if I wanted to see his apartment from inside. By that time I was feeling uneasy and refused the offer. After that he turned towards me in an attempt to kiss and forced me to enter the room. Alarmed by the situation I ran away from the place. He followed me, forcefully hold my hand and shamelessly tried to persuade me to return to the apartment or least enter his car. Somehow I ran away from him and managed to inform Prof. Rajesh Kumar and Prof. P.R. Maiti, professors of my department. Apart from this, he used to call me to his chamber very frequently, for project works, as he did to other female students of the department too. He would often ask us to visit his home in person to discuss work. On some earlier occasions when he had asked me to meet him outside the department, I had taken some friends with me to accompany us. This time he particularly asked me not to bring anyone with me saying that he did not feel comfortable in discussing his work that way. Thinking that the temple was a safe place, I agree to it. So finding me alone this time, he tried to take advantage of me. This is a very shameful incident for our institute and extremely disturbing for me as I considered him to be my mentor. I request you to please do the needful by taking serious action against him and making sure that nothing like this happens again with any other girl. I also request you to take care of my security.";