Gujarat High Court takes on record registrar’s apology, will suggest steps to make campus safer

GNLU registrar Jagadeesh Chandra TG offered his unconditional apology to the court on oath on Wednesday for being initially dismissive of the allegations by terming them to be “devoid of any substance”.

The bench had taken adverse note of the registrar’s stance at the time, recording that he was making an “over anxious effort to hush the whole matter in a summary way”.

Apologising for the contents of his affidavit filed on October 10, 2023, soon after the court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incidents, his apology affidavit stated that he had “no intention” to disregard the incidents of sexual harassment at the university which are of “grave nature”.

He said he had only made such submissions in his earlier affidavit “in the quest of defending the respondent university (GNLU) with utmost sincerity”.

Acknowledging that the litigation is in public interest and not adversarial in nature, Jagadeesh assured in his affidavit that he will henceforth be “extra diligent and exercise extreme caution, great care and restraint” not only in filing affidavits but while discharging his duty.

Chief Justice Agarwal, meanwhile, orally remarked that the bench will be recording in its order that he be never given the charge of registrar.

“He is not fit to be a registrar. He may be fit to be a professor…Every person cannot do administrative duties, many are not fit for that,” the Chief Justice said.