The committee also suggested the Foundation to take up administrative reforms and ensure safety mechanisms on the campus.
Published Aug 08, 2023 | 1:07 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 08, 2023 | 1:07 PM
Hari Padman. (Supplied)
An enquiry panel that looked into the charges of sexual misconduct at Kalakshetra has recommended exemplary punishment to a suspended professor, Hari Padman, besides suggesting the renowned Tamil Nadu-based arts and cultural centre undergo administrative reforms.
The Kalakshetra Foundation has been in the news since March after allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against three male teachers.
The Foundation formed an internal enquiry committee on 4 April after a series of students’ protests and the intervention of the State Human Rights Commission, demanding action against the erring faculty members.
The committee, headed by Justice (Retd) K Kannan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, also comprised former DGP of Tamil Nadu Letika Saran, and Dr Shobha Varthaman, a member of Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
The committee submitted its report to the Kalakshetra management after interacting with the present and former students, teachers, and parents.
The panel recommended that the report be kept confidential since it contained sensitive information which, if made public, would infringe on the privacy of several individuals.
Hari Padman of Kalakshetra, who has been accused of sexual misconduct. (Supplied)
Terming assistant professor Padman a “delinquent employee”, the panel requested the management to release the report’s concluding part since it would be necessary to issue a show-cause notice to the teacher. It also recommended severe punishment to Padman.
Earlier, the Kalakshetra management had placed Padman under suspension after his arrest by the Adayar police on an alumna’s complaint.
The repertory artists Sanjith Lal, Sai Krishnan, and Sreenath were terminated from service and the management also reconstituted the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). A new student counsellor was also appointed.
“The concluding part also contains considerable recommendations for reforms in the administrative set-up and tuning the activities of the institution that will assure safety to students, by focusing on promoting Kalakshetra Foundation primarily as an institution of higher learning and not showcasing it as an institution of public performers,” the report said.
Kalakshetra sources told South First the report would be placed before the institution’s board. After discussions, the board would find ways to implement the panel’s recommendations.
The sources also said that the panel recommended the physical presence of a female teacher in male faculty members’ classes for women students. It also suggested the installation of surveillance cameras on the campus.
The Adayar police arrested Padman on 3 April. According to the complainant, the assistant professor had harassed the complainant via text messages and voice calls in 2019.
Kalakshetra. (Supplied)
Based on her complaint, he was booked under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 (penalty for harassment of woman) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. He was later released on bail.
Incidentally, the management denied the allegations against a few male teachers on 25 March even as the students intensified their protest. The management said a “scurrilous campaign” was being carried out on social media to malign the institute’s reputation.
“During the last few months, a concerted and organised effort is being made to spread rumours and allegations mostly through social media, aimed at maligning Kalakshetra Foundation. These allegations were presented as a false movement to help students speak up, they actually contained numerous ragtag word-of-mouth accounts; some of which were decades old,” the Foundation had then put up on its website.
“They seemed to be mostly manufactured by vested interests who, aimed to sully Kalakshetra Foundation by falsely projecting the institution as an unsafe environment and thus confuse and distress students and staff. The Internal Committee took up the enquiry suo motu and a report has been filed after a thorough investigation. Enquiries were performed with full confidentiality and the committee did not find merit in the allegations,” it added.
Incidentally, the unwanted developments on the campus became public after Leela Samson, a former director of the Foundation, mentioned them in a Facebook post in December 2022.
She spoke of a male teacher who was known to be threatening and molesting students, who were not yet adults.
“The teacher must be brought to book,” Samson said, adding that the ideals of Rukmini Devi, the founder, should not be abused. The post was later deleted.
