This is an archive article published on November 25, 2015
Delhi court allows R K Pachauri to travel abroad
Pachauri, a two-time chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was accused of sexual harassment earlier this year by a junior colleague at the Delhi-based Teri.
R K Pachauri, who faces accusations of sexual harassment, has been allowed by a court to travel to Paris during the time of the climate change conference next month, but it is not clear whether he would be able to make an appearance at the conference venue like previous years.
Pachauri, a two-time chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-backed body of scientists, was accused of sexual harassment earlier this year by a junior colleague at the Delhi-based Teri. He has headed the institute for about three and a half decades. Pachauri had to step down from his IPCC position following the allegation.
Pachauri has been a regular at the annual climate change conferences in his capacity as IPCC boss. This time, however, he might not attend it.
[related-post]
Story continues below this ad
According to the papers he produced in the court to get permission to travel abroad, Pachauri has been invited to attend a meeting of South-South Cooperation on Climate Change. The invite was extended by Jian Liu, Director of International Ecosystem Management Partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme.
“As usual, we will cover your travel and DSA… Since the event will be organised in a hotel outside the conference centre, you need not even (have) a quota permission from the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that organises the climate conferences),” Liu wrote in an email that was attached in Pachauri’s application to the court.
The climate change conference will run from November 30 to December 11 and is expected to deliver a global agreement this year. The court of metropolitan magistrate Shivani Chauhan also allowed Pachauri’s request to travel to Bolivia and Saudi Arabia before going to Paris.
Meanwhile, TERI’s governing council is likely to meet in December to decide on Pachauri’s continued association with the organisation. Pachauri, it is learnt, had been demanding that he should be made chairman with executive powers.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
2 min read
R K Pachauri
