TNNLU’s Vice Chancellor said female students in shorts ‘invite sexual harassment’. Varsity then called protesting students' parents.
In its response to The Leaflet, TNNLU’s Registrar stated that the VC’s remarks were misunderstood due to language, even as faculty told students that the remarks were made as 'fatherly figure'. Meanwhile, students demand a student council and POSH policy.
Tanishka Shah
Published on: 18 April 2026, 12:19 pm
OVER THE LAST THREE DAYS, students at Tamil Nadu National Law University (‘TNNLU’), based in Tiruchirapalli, have issued a public statement and organised a protest condemning remarks made by Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) V. Nagaraj, in which he stated that female students wearing shorts "invites sexual harassment" and constitutes a "distraction" even for faculty members.
According to the students, the comments were made during an official Class Representatives Meeting held on April 15, 2026 in the presence of the Registrar, the Deans, the Faculty (Including the Chief Warden of the Women’s Hostel and the Coordinator of Legal Center for Women’s Welfare) and the Class Representatives.
The student community has unequivocally rejected these statements, asserting that, “the Vice Chancellor's statements across two institutions signals not an isolated lapse in judgment, but a pattern of institutional conduct that normalises harassment and burdens its victims.”
Even as students have continued to protest, highlighting the absence of a formal student council in the law school to negotiate with the administration, it has also been alleged that the administration has attempted to pressure students by calling their parents to disperse the protest.
The Leaflet reached out to the Vice Chancellor V. Nagaraj for comment. However, no response had been received as of the publication of this story.
A history of misogynist remarks
This is not the first time Prof. (Dr.) V. Nagaraj has faced allegations of making such remarks. Prior to his appointment as Vice Chancellor of TNNLU, he served as a Professor of Law and ADR Chair Professor at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, (‘NLSIU’), during which, he was accused of singling out a third-year LL.B. student for wearing shorts to class and of making sexually coloured remarks when she objected to his comments on her attire.
In protest, the entire third-year LL.B. class had attended his lecture wearing shorts and wrote to the Vice Chancellor, faculty, the exam department, and the student body demanding an apology. No apology had been issued at that time.
Responding to those allegations at the time, Prof. Nagaraj had stated, “Nothing like [what is described in the statement] happened. Students are making false and baseless allegations. It is for the university authorities to examine this incident. This is the first time that students have made such a statement [whereas] I have been teaching for 27 years.”
However, similar allegations have surfaced once again, this time at a different institution. In the said class representatives meeting, the Vice Chancellor also, purportedly, expressed that he was “very proud” of having made similar remarks in a previous controversy at NLSIU, and did not offer any retraction or clarification.
Speaking to The Leaflet, the TNNLU’s Registrar, Prof. (Dr.) Balakrishnan, stated that the Vice Chancellor’s remarks were not directed at students but were made in reference to an earlier incident at NLSIU, as part of a broader discussion on institutional development and academic standards.
“All these things were told to the students in relation to the NLSIU Bengaluru incident, because he was a professor there. They started that institution from scratch and that's the way they have developed that institution to a number one institution in India,” he stated, “And just like that, we have to develop this institution also. He was telling a lot of things, how they have developed that institution and he was explaining one such incident where it happened there in NLSIU Bengaluru. In fact, he never referred to our students at all.”
