New Delhi: The Gujarat high court asked the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) to reconstitute the fact-finding committee that is looking into allegations of rape and the presence of a homophobic atmosphere, slamming the college's actions so far as "an effort to cover up the whole issue, to save the image of the institution".

The matter was taken up suo motu by the court last month, after the Ahmedabad Mirror newspaper reported the allegations, made anonymously by two students.

According to LiveLaw, the bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee noted that the fact-finding committee headed by a retired IPS officer, Keshav Kumar, has been constituted but hasn’t given any report as yet.

The court also flagged its concern regarding the presence of professor Anjani Singh Tomar in the fact-finding committee. Tomar, who is the chairperson of GNLU's Internal Complaints Committee, had already filed a one-line report on October 7 stating that no student has met her or offered to about the allegations.

“We fail to understand as to how and in what manner, the institute is dealing with the report which was published in the newspaper on [September 22], more so when the intimation about such alleged incidents was received by the registrar, as per his own admission, on 19 September. The manner in which the enquiry is being done by the University seems to be an effort to cover up the whole issue, to save the image of the institution,” the court said, according to LiveLaw.

The affidavit filed by the registrar seems to be an over anxious effort to hush up the whole matter by stating that there does not appear to be any substance to posts, the court added. "We are taking strong exception to the stand of the registrar, GNLU in the affidavit,” the bench remarked.

According to Bar and Bench, the GNLU registrar earlier claimed that he had received a message on WhatsApp from an assistant professor and the girls' hostel warden on September 19, 2023. Following the messages, he instructed them to submit a report.

The warden reported that after interviewing over 80 students, none had any information about the alleged incident and submitted her report on September 29.

Advocate general Kamal B. Trivedi, appearing for GNLU, assured the court that he would personally ensure that the reconstituted fact-finding committee will have independent members who are not related to the institution.

The matter will be heard again on November 2.

On September 23, the Ahmedabad Mirror said that a queer student accused the GNLU of fostering a homophobic culture on campus. The student said he was made to ‘feel bad’ about being queer and was ‘bashed’ for not being liked by anyone in the boys' hostel. He said there was no grievance redressal mechanism available on campus.

In a separate case, a female student accused her batch mate of intoxicating her and then raping her. The classmate also made videos of her, which he threatened to leak if she complained to the authorities.

Both complaints were posted anonymously on the social media handles of all the National Law Universities.

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