Professor Lawrence Liang, Dean of School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) has been asked to step down from his administrative post in the university. This comes after Liang was found guilty of sexual harassment by a committee set up at AUD to probe a complaint filed by a woman who is pursuing a PhD with another university in Delhi, reported Asia Times.
The inquiry committee has recommended that Liang should be barred from holding any administrative position for the next two years. The committee also suggested that Liang should be warned of serious consequences if more sexual harassment complaints are made against him. Lang has also been asked to submit an undertaking stating that he has understood the university’s sexual harassment policies and will, henceforth, conduct himself appropriately.
In her complaint, the woman had alleged that Liang harassed her on multiple occasions by forcibly kissing or groping her. According to the Scroll report, Liang, however, in his defence, said this incident could constitute sexual harassment only “in a strict reading of the term”, because “sexual harassment policies and laws define harassment in black and white form that does not accommodate the complexities of actual interactions between people (sic).”
According to the Scroll report, in her complaint, the researcher stated that she faced multiple instances of sexual harassment by Liang when they were both PhD students at another university in Delhi. The inquiry committee’s report says the complainant finally decided to “pursue due process” after Liang’s name featured on a crowdsourced list of sexual harassers in Indian academia published by law student Raya Sarkar on Facebook.
A former colleague of Liang’s, acting as a witness, told the inquiry committee that Liang had a “reputation” of behaving in a similar manner. Liang claimed that his colleague might be referring to his “complex” and “deep” friendships with two interns.
This probe by AUD is being hailed as an important case because the complainant was not associated with the university Liang taught in and yet the university decided to look into it.
A student member of AUD’s Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment told Asia Times on a strict condition of anonymity that they were, however, unhappy about the manner in which the inquiry had been conducted, saying:
It is the norm that any inquiry committee must have a student representative. However, in this case they did not include any student representative.
The student said they had written to the faculty representatives to convene a meeting to discuss the issue.
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