Court slams punitive transfer of Lady Professor after sexual harassment complaint

The Bombay High Court has quashed the abrupt transfer of an Assistant Professor who had filed a sexual harassment complaint against a colleague at the Central Sanskrit University (CSU), observing that “no teacher can be treated in this manner, and surely not a lady teacher.” The court directed her reinstatement at the university’s Nashik campus by August 1, 2025.

A division bench of Justices Ravindra V Ghuge and Ashwin D Bhobe delivered the order while hearing a petition filed by the Mumbai-based Assistant Professor. The court noted that after the professor lodged a sexual harassment complaint in 2023, the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the university dismissed the allegations without arriving at a conclusion.

The Assistant Professor, who joined the university in 2018, had earlier moved the court over her prolonged probation period of seven years. Following her plea, the court confirmed her permanency earlier this year. However, after she filed the POSH complaint and an FIR under IPC Sections 354, 354-A, and 506 at the Gamdevi police station in Mumbai, the university transferred herfirst to Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and then to Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

Calling these transfers “punitive,” the court held that she was “deprived of academic responsibilities” and replaced by a guest lecturer, an action the court deemed “impermissible.”

“If the committee cannot take action on a serious complaint under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) against a male employee,” the bench remarked, “less said the better about the protection of female employees at workplaces.”

"In place of the Petitioner, a Guest Teacher has been installed. There can be no debate that a Guest Teacher cannot be appointed in place of a permanent Teacher like the Petitioner, by temporarily transferring her," the bench stated.

Taking note of her family situation, including a young child requiring medical care, the court awarded her 50% back wages. It also directed that she be accommodated at the university's Nashik campus, where her original college has since been relocated.

The bench also ordered the reopening of the POSH complaint within 15 days and instructed that it be “taken to a logical conclusion.”

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