The Delhi Commission for Women on Saturday issued a notice to the registrar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in connection with an alleged sexual assault case.
On 17 January, when a PhD student was walking on the campus, a man allegedly tried to rape her. When she raised an alarm, he snatched her phone and fled.
Commission’s head Swati Maliwal asked the registrar to submit a report on the incident and detail the steps the university has taken to increase security on campus.
Maliwal said that the students and teachers of the university have been demanding strict action to prevent sexual assault incidents on the campus.
The police said they have registered a case and formed several teams to find the accused person, who has not been identified yet.
Days after the incident, Jawaharlal Nehru Teachers’ Association has demanded reinstating the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment that used to deal with complaints of sexual harassment.
Students also want the gender sensitisation committee reinstated that was disbanded in 2017 and replaced by Internal Complaints Committee, she said.
“It appears that the disbanded GSCASH [Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment] had proper representation of students and teachers and GSCASH was more more effective in dealing with cases of sexual harassment than the current Internal Complaints Committee constituted by the Committee,” read the notice.
The notice said that the Internal Complaints Committee also seemed not to have proper representation of students.
Commission asked the registrar to provide the details of the Internal Complaints Committee and its members and the steps the university has taken to ensure proper representation of students in the panel.
The notice also sought the details of the process used to select members to the Internal Complaints Committee.
