The High Court of Karnataka has quashed a First Information Report (FIR) registered against Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder and chair of the governing council of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and others, including the IISc director, on a complaint of alleged atrocity by the institute’s former faculty member from the Scheduled Castes (SC) community.
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order while allowing a petition filed by IISc director Govindan Rangarajan, Mr. Gopalakrishnan, and 14 others.
The FIR was registered against the petitioners under Section 3 of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1890, on the complaint by Sanna Durgappa, who used to work in Centre for Sustainable Technologies of the IISc.
Repeated offences
The court noted that Mr. Durgappa was found guilty of repeated sexual harassment and was dismissed from service in 2014. However, the order of dismissal was converted into resignation in April 2016, based on his request for amicable settlement made before the High Court during the pendency of his petition against dismissal from service.
The court also noted that Mr. Durgappa had give an undertaking to the court that he would withdraw all the proceedings and complaints lodged with various authorities against the institutes and persons associated with it.
However, the filing of this FIR by Mr. Durgappa with similar allegations as made in earlier complaints is clearly a vexatious attempt to harass the petitioners, the court said, while giving liberty to the petitioners to seek nod from the State Advocate-General to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Mr. Durgappa for having violated the undertaking given to the court earlier.
Also, the court said that averments made in the present FIR do not constitute any offence as it had arisen from a civil dispute over dismissal from service that had already attained finality owing to amicable settlement.
Published - April 28, 2025 08:04 pm IST
