Internal Complaint Cell

At Patel Institute of Science and Management, Bengaluru we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where all genders are treated equally. Any behavior that involves physical contact, sexual advances, remarks of a sexual nature, or any form of unwelcome physical, verbal, or nonverbal expression will not be tolerated. Our Sexual Harassment Committee works to educate and sensitize students and staff to prevent sexual harassment. If any such incidents occur, they should be reported to the Committee, which will take appropriate disciplinary action in accordance with the college’s rules and regulations.

Policy: Patel Institute of Science and Management is fully committed to complying with the UGC (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations of 2015. As such, the university has established an independent framework to prevent, address, and take disciplinary action against any form of sexual harassment of its employees and students. We are dedicated to creating and maintaining a safe environment that is free from gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment, and we have a zero-tolerance policy toward any such behavior. The university will ensure timely and adequate compliance with the UGC regulations in this regard.

This regulation shall apply to all students, employees (irrespective of their tenure, position, designation, or gender), and visitors (in whatever capacity) of the Institution in all its workplaces and shall come into effect retrospectively from June 2015.

Primary Goals

• To create awareness among students and employees about sexual harassment and gender sensitization.
• To prevent sexual harassment and to provide a safe and secure learning and working environment.
• To provide a platform for victims of sexual harassment to register their complaints in a safe and confidential manner.
• To conduct impartial inquiries into the complaints of sexual harassment and to ensure that appropriate disciplinary actions are taken against the accused.
• To provide counseling and support to the victims of sexual harassment.
• To maintain records of all the complaints received and actions taken for future reference.

Functions:

• Develop a safe, accessible, and sensitive mechanism for registering complaints of sexual harassment.
• conducting thorough and impartial inquiries, providing assistance and redressal to the victims, recommending disciplinary action, and taking immediate action against the harasser, if necessary.
• Monitor and follow up on the progress of the action taken to ensure that appropriate measures have been taken.
• Recommend that the college authority provide assistance to the complainant if she chooses to file a complaint under the Indian Penal Code or any other relevant law.
• Recommend that the college authority provide a medical intervention with the consent of the complainant, or without consent in cases where the complainant is physically or mentally incapacitated.
• Recommend that the college authority arranges for appropriate psychological, emotional, and physical support, such as counseling., security, and other assistance, to
  the victim if she desires.

Authorities:

To ensure the effective administration of the objectives of the regulation, the Institution shall have the following authorities duly constituted with the approval of the Chairman.

Internal Complaints Committee (1CC): 

According to the UGC regulation, the Internal Complaints Committee (1CC) will be the main body responsible for addressing complaints or grievances related to sexual harassment. The TCC will operate independently, with the power to make recommendations and issue disciplinary measures as necessary. The Committee consists of:

Complaint of Sexual Harassment and Enquiry Procedure

 Complaint Procedure:

• To initiate a complaint, the person who experienced the incident is required to submit a written complaint to the ICC, signed and dated, as soon as possible after the incident. The complaint must be submitted within three months from the date of the incident or the second incident in case of a series of incidents. If the person cannot make the complaint in writing, the Presiding Officer or any Member of the ICC shall provide reasonable assistance to the person to make the complaint in writing. The ICC may extend the time limit for up to one month, with reasons recorded in writing, if satisfied that circumstances prevented the person from filing a complaint within the specified period.
• If there is an unreasonable delay in reporting the incident, the TCC may consider it as a factor in determining the severity of the grievance and/or the intent of the person who experienced the incident.
• If the person who experienced the incident is physically or mentally incapacitated or deceased, their friends, relatives, colleagues, co-students, psychologists, or any other associate may file a complaint on their behalf.
• If none of the lCC members is immediately available, a student may notify the complaint through concerned Counsellor or Head of the Department, and any other person may notify the complaint through the concerned Dean or Director. The ICC shall receive the complaint without recording any comment opinion. The date of notification shall be deemed the date of submission of the complaint to the ICC.

ICC Enquiry Procedure:

•  Investigation Process: Upon receipt of a complaint, the ICC will refer it to a Select Committee of Members of the ICC specifically constituted by the Presiding Officer for scrutiny. The Select Committee will examine the complaint and report on its veracity to the Presiding Officer within 7 working days if needed by summoning the complainant and/or by making independent preliminary inquiries. The report will clearly state the reasons that have led to its decision on the veracity of the complaint. The independent inquiry may include examining evidence from CCTV cameras installed by the University and opinions about the general behavioral traits from discrete sources.

•  Notice to Respondent: Based on the report of the Select Committee, if the complaint is to be further enquired about, the Presiding Officer will send a notice to the respondent with a copy of the complaint, seeking their appearance which shall not be earlier than 7 working days from the date of the notice. A notice will also be sent to the complainant for their presence on the specified date. If the case needs urgent attention, the notice period may be reduced at the discretion of the Presiding Officer.

• Notice to Complainant: If the Select Committee is not convinced of the veracity of the complaint and has so reported the Presiding Officer will send a notice to the complainant with a copy of the report of the select committee, seeking their appearance before the ICC along with their response in writing on a specified date which shall not be earlier than 7 working days from the date of the notice. If the case needs urgent attention, the notice period may be reduced at the discretion of the presiding officer.

• Hearing procedure: The ICC will conduct the inquiry/hearing dispassionately by allowing the following to produce normal judicial practices. If warranted, the parties may be documentary evidence/witnesses in support of their claim or defense. However, either party will not be allowed to be a third party, represented by any including an advocate.

• The ICC, at its discretion. may hear and/or cross-examine the Parties separately or jointly. 

• If the Respondent fails to appear on the specified date of the Hearing, the ICC may reschedule the Hearing for the same day of the following week. If the Respondent fails to appear again, the ICC may proceed to decide on an Ex-Parte basis.

•  If a Party requests additional time to defend their case, they may be granted up to 7 days at a time, with no more than two such extensions permitted.

•  If a Party fails to appear on the extended dates, the ICC may proceed to decide on an Ex-Parte basis against them.

•  The ICC must complete the inquiry proceedings within 45 days of receiving the Complaint and submit its report with recommendations to the Vice Chancellor within 7 working days of completing the proceedings. Copies of the report and recommendations will be provided to both Parties.

•  The Vice-Chancellor will act on the ICC’s recommendations within I5 days of receipt unless an appeal is filed as per the Regulation.

• The Aggrieved Party (Complainant) may seek conciliation of the matter at any time before or during the inquiry process. In such cases, the ICC may facilitate conciliation between the Parties, and if a documented reconciliation is signed by the Parties, all inquiry proceedings of the ICC will be terminated. 

• Monetary payment will not be encouraged as part of any such conciliation.

• Notwithstanding such conciliation, if the ICC determines that the conduct of the employee or student (as Respondent) is a serious
  misconduct/act of indiscipline under the University’s Code of Conduct and Ethics/Disciplinary Rules, it may recommend appropriate punitive action under Clause 6(a) or 6(b) of this Regulation. Alternatively, the Vice Chancellor may take such action of their own accord, and any such action will be independent of this Regulation and will not be subject to appeal.

Frivolous Complaint:

• If the Select Committee, after conducting an independent inquiry, finds that a Complaint filed under this Regulation is false, untrue, or malicious, and the ICC reaches the same conclusion during its enquiry proceedings, the Complainant shall be held accountable for the offence, and punishment shall be awarded as per Clause 6 of this Regulation.
• It should be noted that a Complaint cannot be deemed frivolous solely based on the Complainant’s inability to provide sufficient evidence to support their claim.
• To establish that a Complaint was filed with malicious intent, appropriate supporting evidence must be provided.

Punishment and Compensation:

• Any University employee who engages in sexual harassment shall be subject to disciplinary action under the Employment Regulations and the prescribed Code of Conduct.
• In cases where a student is found guilty of sexual harassment, the ICC may recommend one or more of the following punishments, depending on the severity of the offense:

• Withholding of student privileges, such as access to the library, auditoria, halls of residence, vehicle parking, scholarships, fee concession, and identity card.
• Suspension or restriction of entry into the campus for a specific period.
• Imposition of reformative punishments, such as mandatory counseling and/or community services.
• Debarment from writing the semester examination.
• Expulsion and removal of the student’s name from the rolls of the institution, including denial of readmission, if the offense warrants such action.

• The ICC may recommend monetary compensation to the aggrieved person in the following circumstances, subject to the approval of the Vice Chancellor. The compensation shall be appropriately determined and shall be recoverable from the offender:

• Mental trauma, pain, suffering, and distress caused to the aggrieved person
• Loss of career opportunity due to the incident of sexual harassment.
• Medical expenses incurred by the victim for physical or psychiatric treatment.

Confidentiality responsibility of ICC:

• In any complaint investigated by the ICC under this Regulation, it shall ensure that the identities and complaint details of both the aggrieved party and the accused shall be kept confidential by all members of the ICC and shall never be disclosed to the public during or after the investigation process.
• Pursuant to Section 16 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, no personal or other information related to any complaint received, investigated, and/or resolved by the ICC shall be disclosed under the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2005.

The following is the summary of the number of cases registered with ICC and resolved
successfully: