EFLU Students Allege Varsity Report on Sexual Harassment Invalid'

HYDERABAD: Students of the English and Foreign Languages University (Eflu) questioned the validity, fairness and transparency of a report compiled by its internal complaints committee — into an incident of attempted rape that took place on the varsity campus on October 18 — given that the committee lacked student members, which is mandated by the UGC.

A student said, “The UGC guidelines are clear in their insistence on having student representatives for such committees. Eflu's failure to adhere to these guidelines erodes our confidence in the investigation. If the panel doesn't have the right people looking into the matter, then the report they submitted is essentially just a piece of paper — it's invalid.”

“The absence of student representatives and the presence of active professors on the ICC raise doubts about whether the investigation will be fair and unbiased,” the student said.

While the Vice Chancellor of Eflu, E. Suresh Kumar, said that a report was
compiled and submitted, students rejected the same, citing violation of UGC
guidelines. They said that as per UGC norms, at least three student representatives, with one each at UG, PG and research scholar levels, are to
be elected through democratic procedure to the internal complaints committee
(ICC).

The UGC guidelines also stipulate that persons in senior administrative positions, including the V-C, Registrar, deans and heads of departments, shall not be members of ICCs to ensure the autonomy of their functioning. Students alleged that even this norm was not followed.

The Eflu’s ICC panel, which was formed on October 11th officially —
notwithstanding students’ allegations that the order was released on October
19 after the sexual harassment incident took place and backdated to October
11 — Prof. Dr Anjavi V. Bagde was named the presiding officer of the panel,
despite being the dean of School of European Studies at Eflu.

“While other members' designations have been mentioned with their names in
the order, they conveniently omitted her designation to get away with this,”
a student pointed out.

Other members of the ICC include Dr Priyadarshini, associate professor with
the Hindi department, assistant professor Dr E. Raj Kumar Mishra, section
officer Meena Kumari Mishra, lower-division clerk P. Chalapati and professor
C. Beena.

“The names of the elected students will be included as members after the
declaration of results to the students’ council,” an Eflu communique in this regard stated.

Another student said: “How can an inquiry be conducted if the panel is not even complete? How can we trust an investigation where our voices are not heard through elected representatives? It's like they don't want to understand our concerns.”