Bombay High Court upholds expulsion of law student from MNLU for sexual harassment

The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the expulsion of a law student from Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) for repeated sexual harassment of female students, as determined by the university’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). However, the court limited his expulsion to one academic year 2024-2025, noting that expulsion for an “indefinite” period would lead to the “academic death” of the student.

“An indefinite and indefinite deportation order would be harsh and result in the ‘academic death’ of ‘X’ (petitioner). It would result in taking away the education and training he has undergone since his admission to the course in 2019-2020. In fact, he could never complete the BA. LLB (Honours) course at MNLU in future,” a bench of Justices AS Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil. They also stated that this would deprive the student of his education and have a lasting impact on his academic life.

The court limited the expulsion to one academic year and ordered the petitioner to perform community service under the direction of the Vice Chancellor during the 2024-2025 academic year. The court reasoned that this punishment was proportionate to the misconduct, adding: “The loss of an academic year on these facts would, in our opinion, be proportionate to the misconduct of ‘X.’ It would set him one year behind in his entire 2019-2024 series and during that period he would not be able to engage in any other academic activity.”

After expelling him from school, the Vice Chancellor allowed him to appear for the ninth and tenth semester examinations but has withheld his results from the outcome of the present proceedings. Ideally, the petitioner would have completed the BA.LLB (Honours) course by the end of the academic year 2023-2024. However, the same has not happened as the results of his last two exams have not been declared.

The petitioner challenged the June 2024 deportation order. His counsel Mihir Desai argued that the investigation was flawed and biased. He claimed that the incident took place outside the university premises, where the ICC had no jurisdiction. However, counsel for the complainant, Navroz Seervai, highlighted the petitioner as a “repeat offender” with a history of harassing several students.

The court also directed MNLU to consider the ICC recommendations regarding event venues to prevent similar incidents, stressing the importance of not serving alcohol at university-related gatherings.