india

Updated: Sep 05, 2019 01:00 IST

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the transfer of a Shahjahanpur student, who has accused former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Swami Chinmayanand of harassment, and her brother to law colleges affiliated to the Bareilly university.

“For us, their future is important,” the court said as it disposed of a suo motu petition. The court said that it had taken cognisance of the matter when the woman went missing. It added that nothing much survives in the issue as she has been traced now.

The court rejected the plea of group of lawyers that judges should meet the student one more time. “We do not want to meet anyone. Just ask her to tell the Allahabad high Court or SIT [Special Investigation Team] whatever she wants to say.”

The Uttar Pradesh government constituted the SIT on Tuesday to probe the harassment charges a day after the Supreme Court ordered it to do so. The UP government told a bench of justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna that they have made arrangements for the transfer of the woman and her brother from SS Law College to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand (MJPR) University, Bareilly, and Shreeji Institute of Legal and Vocational Studies (SILVS) in compliance with the court’s earlier order. Chinmayanand is the chairman of the SS Law College.

Additional solicitor general Vikramjeet Banerjee, who appeared for the Uttar Pradesh government, said that SILVS, Bareilly, does not have any hostel. He added they have made arrangement for the accommodation of the woman’s brother in the hostel attached to the university, where both of them will stay till they complete their courses. He said whatever fees and other incidental charges the two have paid in their respective colleges will be adjusted against the fee payable at the colleges they are to be transferred to.

The court said it listed the matter for Wednesday to see that their studies and future are not affected. “This is the benevolence shown by the state government. She has got best of the institution. Education is very important for her. Ask her to join the institution and study. It is only with education that people can grow in this country,” the court said.

It requested the Bar Council of India (BCI) to increase the seats of the colleges in which the woman and her brother will be shifted for LLM and LLB courses.

“In the interest of justice and peculiar facts and circumstances, we request the BCI to pass appropriate orders to increase the sanctioned strength of seats by one as an exceptional case in the MJPR University, for LLM course and SILVS, Bareilly, for LLB course, at the earliest,” it said.

The court gave four weeks to the woman and her brother to make an application for admission in the concerned educational institutions. It said the woman and her parents are at liberty to go home in Shahjahanpur accompanied by Delhi Police. If any further direction, including with regard to the safety and security, is required, then they can approach the Allahabad HC, the court added.

The judges had earlier interacted with the woman. She had said that she told the judges that she did not want to continue her study in the college run by Chinmayanand’s ashram at Shahjahanpur.

The court had asked the state to provide police protection to the family and explore the possibility of admitting the woman and her brother in another college at Bareilly. The woman went missing after levelling allegations against Chinmayanand in a video and was later found in Rajasthan.

In Shahjahanpur, Chinmayanand said: “The matter is in the Supreme Court. An SIT has been constituted. I have full faith in the judiciary and I will say whatever I have to say before the SIT.”

(With PTI inputs)