JNU Sacks Professor Swaran Singh Over Sexual Harassment of Japanese Official

Professor Swarn Singh, who was sacked from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on charges of alleged sexual harassment, was a senior faculty member in the Department of International Studies. His dismissal was done after a detailed internal investigation by the Executive Council of the University, which is the highest decision-making body of JNU. The case is related to allegations of sexual harassment leveled by a female officer of a Japanese embassy. The incident took place in May 2022 and was followed by a thorough investigation by an internal committee, in which both the parties were given full opportunity to present their side and present witnesses. The evidence presented before the committee also included audio recordings, which played an important role in substantiating the allegations.

Who is Swarn Singh?
Educational background: Swarn Singh has a Masters (MA) in Political Science from Delhi University and a PhD in International Studies from JNU. He also holds a Post-Doctoral Diploma in Conflict Resolution from Uppsala, Sweden.

Role at JNU: Member of the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at the School for International Studies. Joined JNU in 2001.

Prior Experience: Worked as Research Faculty at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi from 1992 to 2001.

Expertise: Arms control and disarmament, Conflict resolution and peace studies, Defence and nuclear policy of India.

Other positions: President of the Association of Asian Studies (2006), General Secretary of the Indian Congress of Asian and Pacific Studies (2008), and Chief Vigilance Officer at JNU (2012-2014).

In addition, JNU has sacked another faculty member of the environmental sciences department on charges of corruption in a research project, and the case has been handed over to the CBI. Two non-teaching staff have also been sacked following a fact-finding committee report on a research project. In other cases, faculty members have faced punishments such as withholding of salary increments, censure and mandatory sensitisation training.