SC rejects plea by IISc professor against retirement on sexual harassment charge

The Supreme Court has rejected a plea by a professor from Indian Institution of Science, Bangalore who was forcefully retired on the basis of sexual harassment charges by a doctoral student.

“We are not inclined to interfere with an interim order by the Karnataka HC,” a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and A S Bopanna said.

The HC had on December 6, 2019 stayed a single judge bench's order which had quashed the order for compulsory retirement of Prof Giridhar Madras.

Dismissing his petition against the interim order, the top court on Monday said, “However, the petitioner, if he so chooses, can make a request to the High Court to expedite the hearing”.

Madras, a professor in the IISc’s department of chemical engineering, has received several honours, including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in 2009. He also received the J C Bose National Fellowship. He had been associated with the prestigious institute since 1998.

Acting on a plea by the professor, the single judge had quashed the internal complaints committee’s report, submitted in February 2018, and the institute’s order on October 17, 2018, forcing him to retire.

It was contended by the professor that the woman had filed a second complaint, a couple of months after expressing satisfaction in January 2017 with his response on the first complaint made in December, 2016. The institute had acted against him without issuing a show-cause notice, he had contended, maintaining that there was no sexual harassment charge in her second complaint.

On an appeal by the institution, the division bench of the HC, however, had stayed the single judge's directions which included actions against the members of the inquiry committee.