From: snigdha jayakrishnan <snigdhajayakrishnan@gmail.

com>
To: Suryasarathi Bhattacharya <Suryasarathi.Bhattacharya@nw18.com>
Subject: Fwd: Mishandling of Sexual Harassment Complaints at Symbiosis Law School,
Hyderabad
Date: 26.10.2018 12:19:28 (+0530)

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Benarji chakka <benarjich@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 8:05 PM
Subject: Fwd: Mishandling of Sexual Harassment Complaints at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
To: <snigdhajayakrishnan@gmail.com>

Dr. Benarji Chakka

British Chevening Scholar 2015-16
SOAS, University of London
BAL., LL.B (Andhra University, India)
M.Phil, Ph.D. (JNU, India)
PG Cert in Teaching in Higher Education (NUI, Galway, Ireland)
PG Dip in French Language, Literature, and Culture (NUI, Galway, Ireland)

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: SNIGDHA JAYAKRISHNAN <snigdha.jayakrishnan@slsh.edu.in>
Date: Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 12:33 AM
Subject: Mishandling of Sexual Harassment Complaints at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
To: <apwomenscommission@gmail.com>, <complaintcell-ncw@nic.in>, <gandhim@sansad.nic.in>,
<director.naac@gmail.com>, <pillai.latha@gmail.com>, <ministry.hrd@gov.in>, <sgportalugc@gmail.com>,
<hello@scroll.in>, <publiceditor@thewire.in>, <editorial@thewire.in>, <tgwdcw@gmail.com>,
<editor.thecaravan@delhipress.in>, <info@kafila.com>, <majlislaw@gmail.com>, <vrindagrover@gmail.com>
Cc: <apoorva.k@slsh.edu.in>, <benarjich@gmail.com>

Sir/ Madam,
In a recent incident, a female student was allegedly blackmailed by few of her male
classmates (her ex boyfriend and his friends) who threatened to leak her personal
photographs. When the complainant approached administration, the complaint was dealt
by Disciplinary committee. According to the complainant, she was not informed of the
actions taken by the committee against accused. She came to know about the fifteen days
suspension of accused through fellow students. According to the complainant and other
students we spoke to, the suspended students attended a sports fest in another college and
were even given attendance for their participation during the course of the suspension
period. After the period of suspension, the complainant was again targeted by few of the
accused. They allegedly passed obscene and sexually coloured remarks at her. She
approached the administration once again on whose instruction she filed a complaint to
Disciplinary committee. She says that she has been made fun of, humiliated by the accused
when she was walking out of Disciplinary committee meetings. At this point, a group of
female students including ourselves approached the Director M.I Baig and Asso. Professor
Prageetha Raju demanding safe environment for the complainant. We raised the issue that
the acts of the accused amounts to sexual harassment and the matter has to be dealt by
Internal Complaint Committee. However, Prof. Raju was quick to point out that it is not a
case of sexual harassment and it was simply personal grudge between the two parties
which escalated into something else. When M.I Baig was questioned about, “why the
matter was not transferred to ICC, when they realized it was sexual harassment?” He
replied stating that the onus was on complainant to come before ICC and not on the
college to transfer it to ICC. In the later stages, upon being informed about ICC,
complainant requested student affairs committee to transfer her case to ICC but she was
told that disciplinary committee shall deal with the case, if results weren’t satisfactory then
the case shall be passed on to ICC.

In another case, complainant had filed a molestation case against her classmate. She said
that she wasn’t taken seriously by the Deputy Director Dr. Sukhwinder Singh Dari who
asked her to reach a compromise with the accused as he had apologised to her. According
to the complainant, he even told her that it is our duty towards god to forgive those who
are repentant. When she persisted on going forward with the matter, the Dy.Director
allegedly threw away her written complaint and told nothing is going to come out of this.
Later, when the complainant approached Symbiosis International University head office in
Pune, action was taken against the accused. When we asked Associate Professor Prageetha
Raju about the matter, she told us that “he was simply trying to put an arm around her and
she was uncomfortable with it”, while the allegations were about groping from behind. The
complainant, in a personal conversation mentioned that she thought Prof. Prageetha Raju
was biased towards the accused. Nevertheless, Prof. Raju was a part of the committee that
took action against the accused though she told us that she was asked ‘not to speak’ during
the proceedings by the Director. She also said that the accused was given an option to
leave the college without any mention of the complaint against him in the transfer
certificate or to serve the suspension of six months and come back to college. When the
accused was contacted, he declined to speak about it as he was instructed by the authorities
to keep the matter confidential. Former Associate Professor Banerji Chakka told us that he
was called to the Director’s office and asked to sign the report of the fact finding
committee in the case. He declined from signing the report as he was not a part of the
committee and wasn’t a witness to the proceedings. This happened right before the NAAC
team visited the college for accreditation.

In another incident, a group of female students complained against Asst. Professor Srinivas
Methuku of constant ogling and causing discomfort, Director M.I Baig allegedly passed a
remark that his eyes are like that which is not his problem. At this point, no written
complaint was taken against the accused and no procedures were followed. The accused
had allegedly humiliated a female student by questioning her about her relationship with a
boy in the campus and nothing was done about it.

In another incident, Female students raised complaint against former campus administrator
Patil in open house for passing sexually colored remarks and shaming women for not
clothing themselves properly. Though he was replaced, he was a committee member in a
recent Disciplinary committee proceedings with regard to Anti-Ragging complaints
received. He has been once reinstated again.
In the first Case, the proceedings of Disciplinary committee hearing is over and the verdict
is yet to come out. The complainant hopes for a satisfactory resolution. In the second case,
the complainant is unwilling to talk to us about the issue as more than a year has passed
since the incident.

Also in the first two cases, the complainants have informed the authorities at head office,
Pune about the hostility of administration towards them at Symbiosis and no action has
been taken so far.

But we have a few concerns about the way matters at hand are being dealt in Symbiosis
Law School, Hyderabad.

1. The institution barely acknowledges the complaints of sexual harassment, intimidates

female students to back out and tactically procrastinates the proceedings to deter the
complainant.
2. The complainant has to always take the matter to Symbiosis International University
which in turn shall direct Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad to take action. By this time,
authorities at Hyderabad would turn hostile towards complainant for surpassing them.
3. They don’t voluntarily constitute ICC and upon being asked to, they refuse to
acknowledge that complaints are about sexual harassment.
4. Due Process has never been followed, campus has not been sensitized about sexual
harassment and most of us continue to remain ignorant about what amounts to sexual
harassment and the way to deal with it.
5. We expect the institution to set up a robust mechanism to deal with women grievances
and also direct sexual harassment complaints to ICC and for ICC to follow due procedures
and give a fair verdict.
We are writing this with the hope that you"ll help us do the needful. All the information
mentioned above has been collected from conversations with the complainants, College
Administration and other persons involved. We believe that if a thorough investigation is
conducted, the institutional mismanagement can be proved. We're willing to co-operate
with you anytime.
Thank you,
Snigdha Jayakrishnan, 3rd year BA LLB (Ph. no 8921167606)
Apoorva Y.K, 3rd year BA LLB (Ph. no 9550367067)
Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
Symbiosis International (deemed) university