GNLU: High-level committee formed under the leadership of former judge, will review the performance of the last 5 years

The Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) notified the High Court on Thursday that a High-Level Review Committee (HLRC) will be established to evaluate the institution's performance over the previous five years. The committee will be chaired by former Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra. The reassurance follows claims of a female student at the university being raped and a gay student being harassed.

A PIL on the subject is being heard suo motu by a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayi. Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, representing GNLU, told the bench during the hearing that the university's governing council met on March 23 and decided to form a high-level inquiry committee. Apart from Justice Indu Malhotra, the committee also includes Attorney General R Venkataramani and former additional chief secretary of the state finance department M.M. Srivastava will be a member.

GNLU lawyer Trivedi said that a sub-committee will also be appointed by the university to reconstitute a transparent and vigilant internal complaints committee. This will include Additional Advocate General Manisha Luvkumar Shah and Senior Advocate Aseem Pandya. The Council also directed the university administration to immediately appoint a full-time Registrar for GNLU. After considering the arguments of GNLU, Chief Justice Sunita Aggarwal directed the university to submit an action taken report before the next date of hearing on April 29.

In a report published in a newspaper on September 22, the issue of harassment of two GNLU students was raised. The victimized students include a gay student and a female student. There is an allegation of rape of a student by a classmate. The High Court took suo motu cognizance of this media report and started hearing the case. The High Court said during the hearing that this report is frightening.