At NUJS Kolkata, student exasperation with Vice Chancellor accused of sexual harassment reaches a crescendo
Financial impropriety, administrative breakdown and a Supreme Court order noting that a sexual harassment case “must haunt the [Vice-Chancellor] forever” - students at the national law university say that their assertion is against “persistent apathy”.
The Leaflet
20 September 2025
“IN THIS VIEW OF THE MATTER, we direct that the incidents of alleged sexual harassment on part of Respondent No. 1 may be forgiven but allowed to haunt the wrongdoer forever” - these were the observations of a Supreme Court bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and P.B. Varale last week in a case where serious sexual harassment allegations were raised by a faculty member against N.K. Chakrabarti, the vice chancellor of National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
Even as the order noted that the complaint was time barred, as per the limitation period and the extended period, in a remarkable initiative, the top Court had directed that “the judgment shall be made part of the resume of the [vice chancellor], compliance of which shall be strictly ensured by him personally.”
Last year, first a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court had directed the local committee of North 24 Parganas to re-examine the complaint lodged by the faculty member against Chakrabarti’s removal. Thereafter in December 2024, on appeal, the High Court had reversed its decision, upholding the dismissal of the sexual harassment complaint.
Eight days later today, students at NUJS Kolkata came together to organise a mass protest to demand Chakrabarti’s resignation. While the Supreme Court’s observations played a crucial role in triggering the student agitations, the disgruntlements are multilayered, many of them rooted in systemic breakdown of administrative upkeep, and even concerning allegations of financial impropriety, in the national law university which admits students each year through the Common Law Admission Test.
While students demanded an indefinite resignation today, reports suggest that the vice chancellor indicated his reluctance to resign.
In a public statement drafted by the students, they noted:
“It is a collective cry born out of months, even years of silence, frustration and disappointment. It is an action born out of desperation, post the grave allegations of sexual harassment levelled against the VC, which has to be mandatorily included in his resume, as directed by the Hon’ble SC, the glaring lack of financial transparency and the systemic patterns of administrative failures, persistent apathy, and growing disconnect between the administration and its students and faculty members.”