It is high-handedness on the part of the respondents-authorities in not getting the matter investigated properly despite the fact that there was serious complaint made by a female employee regarding sexual harassment at work place against the highest officer of the University i.e. Vice Chancellor of RDVV…….This gives an impression that they are hand in gloves with the officers of RDVV: High Court, Jabalpur bench
Bhopal: High Court, Jabalpur bench on Wednesday ordered a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) to look into sexual harassment charges levelled by a woman official of Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya (RDVV), Jabalpur against the university vice-chancellor Prof Rajesh Kumar Verma.
The HC’s order came after collector, Jabalpur Deepak Kumar Saxena filed an affidavit in the high court stating that he was not satisfied with the report of the committee which was constituted to look into the accusations.
The court of Justice Vishal Mishra observed, “…..On perusal of the report, it is seen that complete material was not supplied to the committee to enable it to investigate the matter properly. No efforts were made by the committee to collect the complete material as required. No efforts were made to collect the CCTV footage of the room wherein the incident took place being a material piece of evidence. It was informed that the CCTV camera is not functioning, therefore, the footage could not be collected. Merely on the statement, that CCTV camera of the said room was not functional, the report was submitted before this court.”
The court said the fact of the matter was that there was an order passed on the earlier occasion on February 7, 2025 wherein the counsel appearing for the respondent No.2-RDVV gave an undertaking that the CCTV footage was preserved but despite the same the CCTV footage was not preserved in the matter.
“Now they have taken a somersault pointing out the fact that the CCTV camera installed in that very room was not functioning. The stand taken by the respondent-RDVV’s counsel and the observations in the report are contrary to each other. For the said purpose, this Court vide order dated 08.05.2025 directed the Collector, Jabalpur to look into the matter and to produce the report pertaining to CCTV footage in pursuance to which, he has constituted a six-member committee to investigate into the matter and to place the compliance report before this court”, said the court.
The court said, “….today when the affidavit filed is seen, it clearly indicates that the collector is not satisfied with the manner in which the inquiry is done by the committee. The evaluation report which is produced by the committee was not found to be satisfactory by the collector district Jabalpur himself. He has categorically stated that he is not satisfied with the report of the committee.”
The court observed, “It is high-handedness on the part of the respondents-authorities in not getting the matter investigated properly despite the fact that there was serious complaint made by a female employee regarding sexual harassment at work place against the highest officer of the University i.e. Vice Chancellor of RDVV. The manner in which the investigation has been carried out carves out suspicion on the officials who have carried out the investigation. This gives an impression that they are hand in gloves with the officers of RDVV.”
Court said it was argued by the petitioner’s counsel that the person against whom the allegations were made was having high political connections and was very influential, therefore, there was every possibility that the inquiry reports submitted were managed reports, because on two occasions, this court gave opportunity to the authorities to investigate the matter properly. But the reports submitted were found to be dissatisfactory.
Court said a request was made to hand over the investigation to an external agency so that fair and impartial investigation can be carried out and justice be done to the victim.
Accordingly, the court said, “The director general of police, Madhya Pradesh is directed to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) consisting of three senior IPS officers, out of whom one should necessarily be a woman officer not below the rank of superintendent of police. The officers should not be from district Jabalpur. The SIT to be necessarily constituted within 3 days and to be headed by an officer not below the rank of inspector general of police.”
Court directed that the SIT to investigate into the matter would submit the report to the court on or before the next date of hearing.
The next date of hearing is in the week commencing June 16, 2025.
