Asst. Professor resigned on her own, we didn't terminate her: St. Xavier's University VC

Asst. Professor resigned on her own, we didn't terminate her: St. Xavier's University VC

Last Updated Aug - 20 - 2022, 12:46 PM | Source : The FELA | The Indian Express | Visitors : 102

Vice-Chancellor of Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s University said that the university could have “terminated” the teacher but she was on probation.

Kolkata: Denying allegations about forcing a professor to resign over swimsuit photos she posted on Instagram, Father Felix Raj, the Vice-Chancellor of Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s University told The Indian Express that the university could have “terminated” the teacher as she was on probation but did not to “protect her career.”

The vice chancellor of St. Xavier’s University in Kolkata on Friday claimed that a former assistant professor, who had alleged she was forced to quit over “objectionable and inappropriate” Instagram photos, had resigned on her own, The Indian Express reported.

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“She was on probation,” Vice-Chancellor Felix Raj claimed in an interview with the newspaper. “She served us only for two months. She started in August 2021 and tendered her resignation in October. so there is no question of force.”

He added that the university could have terminated her contract since she was on probation, but that they did not do so to “protect her career”.

The former assistant professor, who holds doctorate degrees from two European universities, had alleged that Raj and Registrar Asish Mitra intimidated, bullied and made “sexually-colored remarks” about her during a “kangaroo court” held on October 7.

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“Not only was I morally policed and harassed for over an hour...but I was also forced to tender my resignation,” the academic wrote in The Indian Express on August 17. “I was told that my failure to voluntarily resign would be punished by the lodging of a criminal case against me for putting up “objectionable” photographs.”

The “kangaroo court” was held after the college said it had received a complaint from a first-year student’s father, who had objected to some of the photos posted by the assistant professor on her private Instagram stories.

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