Dalit professor harassed: Allahabad High Court stays NCSC's order seeking FIR against four faculty members of IIT-Kanpur

The Allahabad High Court stayed the recommendations of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) asking IIT-Kanpur’s director to lodge an FIR against four faculty members for committing atrocities against their Dalit colleague, according to reports. [caption id=“attachment_3738697” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Allahabad High Court[/caption] According to a report in The Indian Express, the court said on Wednesday that this was beyond the scope of the commission’s authority. The report quoted a two-member bench comprising Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Ashok Kumar as saying, “Till further orders of this court the effect and operation of the impugned order dated 13 April 2018 passed by the National Commissioner for Scheduled Castes, shall remain stayed.” The bench passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Ishan Sharma and three others. The court also stayed the NCSC’s recommendation to stay the appointment of one of the petitioners, Rajiv Shekhar, as director of IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, and direction to remove the faculty members from the membership of the Departmental Faculty Affairs Committee of the Aerospace Department. The court, however, clarified that the administration of IIT-Kanpur could proceed to hold disciplinary proceedings against the professors in accordance with the law if they so desired. The court had issued a notice to the commission and directed assistant professor S Sadrela to file a counter-affidavit in the case. Sadrela, an assistant professor in the Department of the Aerospace, had accused the four faculty members of harassment and filed a case against them with the NCSC. The petitioners in their plea had contended that the commission had acted beyond its jurisdiction and it had no power to pass such recommendations. With inputs from PTI