NLS Bangalore professor slut-shames student for wearing shorts: Batchmates protest, turn up to class in shorts

A storm is brewing in National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru after a professor slut-shamed a girl during a lecture for wearing shorts. Professor V Nagaraj of NLSIU on 4 April allegedly shamed a girl for turning up in shorts for the lecture. When the student stood up against the statements made by the professor, Nagaraj even cast aspersions on her character. Among several unsavory statements, Professor Nagaraj is alleged to have said, “We all know why parents marry their children off - so that they can have sex. Just because the parents marry off their children for this reason, it does not mean that the children have sex in front of their parents.” [caption id=“attachment_2719848” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  NSIU building. Image credit: nls.ac.in[/caption] Needless to say, the comments did not sit well with the third year students of LLB class who protested by turning up in shorts the next day. They demanded an apology from the professor, but he refused, and still vehemently denied that he made statements such as, “You can come to class without a dress also. That is how your character is, I’m going to ignore you.” A student of NLSIU from the same class released a ‘statement of condemnation,’ and addressed it to all faculty members and the vice chancellor. Read the full statement here:

Statement of CondemnationAs many students of the III year batch of B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), NLSIU, we issue this statement… Posted by Mamidipudi Mukunda on  Tuesday, 5 April 2016

Speaking to HuffPost India, Professor Nagaraj said that the matter should be “objectively” investigated by a body constituted by the University administration. “The matter I reported to the head of the institution as soon as the allegation started. Now it for the university administration to handle this,” he said. It is genuinely worrisome when a premium institute like NLSIU gets in the limelight for such reasons. However, the professor in question was clearly in denial about any wrongdoing when he said this to Legally India: “Nothing like (what is described in the statement) happened. Students are making false and baseless allegations. It is for the university authorities to examine this incident. This is the first time that students have made such a statement (whereas) I have been teaching for 27 years.” Former in-charge of NLSIU’s sexual harassment committee, Prof VS Elizabeth, however, responded with a near perfect statement after the incident, a part of which read: It is important that all of us, particularly faculty, should think before we make comments, particularly should not be casting aspersions on people’s character based on what they wear or don’t wear. After all the amount of cloth we use to cover our bodies does not proportionately reflect our morality. Many sexual abusers of children and women most certainly wear more clothes, does it mean that they are more moral than the rest of us?