Indefinite expulsion would be ‘academic death’: Bombay HC on student accused of sexual harassment
The court allowed the Maharashtra National Law University to expel the petitioner for one academic year and ordered him to participate in community service.
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The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that the indefinite expulsion of a student from the Maharashtra National Law University for “repeated” sexual harassment would result in his “academic death”, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices Atul Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil made the observation while disposing of a petition filed by the final year law student of the university.
The student had moved the court against an order issued by the vice-chancellor of the Maharashtra National Law University on June 21, expelling him based on the findings of the institute’s Internal Complaints Committee.
He was accused of repeated sexual harassment by several girls at the university over two years, according to Live Law. Subsequently, the Internal Complaints Committee found him guilty in two inquiries, which led to the expulsion order against him, Bar and Bench reported.
On Thursday, the bench said that an expulsion order for “an indefinite and unspecified period would be harsh resulting in ‘academic death’ of ‘X’ [petitioner]”. It would also take away from the education and training that he had undergone since he was admitted to the course in 2019-’20, it added.
“The consequence of such expulsion would operate perpetually having a drastic effect on a student’s academic life,” the court said. “All this would also result in deprivation and denial of education…The consequences flowing...
