Imagine an ordinary middle class woman slogging at work every day, bringing laurels to the institution and yet the very same institution throws her out for complaining against sexual harassment by her higher-ups. Josephine Jeyashanthi’s story is about a lone woman’s fight against an extremely powerful establishment that is hell bent on protecting a bunch of sexual predators.
Loyola College, Chennai, a Jesuit Institution, considered as one of the top colleges in the state as well as the country, which has churned out several noteworthy alumni, is turning out to be a den of sexual harassment where vulnerable women are preyed on and the harassers who are mostly professors or Jesuit priests go scot free.
Earlier, The Commune had published about the Mary Rajasekharan case in which the survivor who was an administrator in the college, was sexually harassed by Father Xavier Alphonse, the then Director of Loyola Alumni Association.
This case too is similar but happened much before and is even more disturbing.
Background
Josephine Jeyashanthi joined Loyola College, Chennai as a lecturer in the Department of Media Arts in June 2006. She was later shifted to Department of Tamil in June 2007 without any written order. She was on probation for two years and her service was confirmed by the Loyola management in 2009.
Josephine was a dedicated professor and had brought several accolades to the college. It was during her period as in-charge of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) that the college won the national event and also the SIFE World Cup both in 2007 at New York and in 2010 at Los Angeles. She also struck a chord with the students with her teaching. She had also worked in many programmes aimed at improving the lives of the downtrodden.
Trouble started when Dr. S. Antony Rajarajan (referred to as SA Rajarajan) became the head of the Tamil department. “Right from the beginning Rajarajan used to behave rudely with me. He would throw the leave application on my face when I request for leave. He would insult me in front of others using abusive language. I was subjected to harassment every single day.”, Josephine narrated to The Commune.
Rajarajan had even compelled her to enrol herself as a research student ‘under his guidance’ which Josephine rejected categorically. But he kept insisting despite her rejection. Josephine said that, he even asked her to come and stay with him in a lodge in a manner so disturbing that it haunts her till date.
He changed her workstation at the college inside his cabin and compelled her to sit there and work. Josephine said that Rajarajan would frequent her seat in SIFE office and try to make advances on her and had once told her “You are lying dry and bare without a husband, better succumb to my desire”.
He even made obscene remarks like “There is a hole in your body, I know how to plug it” in front of her colleagues.
“That is the level of obscenity I had to endure”, Josephine said.
Since Josephine did not yield to his advances, Rajarajan made false complaints about her to the college management saying that she was not doing her job properly. He created a hostile environment for her to work causing mental agony to her. This one time things went so bad that Antony Rajarajan flung a chair at her making her fall down. One of the students who witnessed the event is later said to have hospitalized her. This incident was also recorded by that student when he deposed before the committee constituted to enquire about Josephine’s sexual harassment case.
Victimising the victim
Josephine had lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Antony Rajarajan with the internal complaints committee in December 2012. Two months before that, the department staff complained of Rajarajan indulging in corrupt practices in the college. In that complaint related to corruption, a reference to him sexually harassing staff members was also made. However, Josephine who was asked to depose before the committee inquiring the corruption charges, did not bring up the issue of sexual harassment as she was clear that only an exclusive committee constituted for the purpose should investigate Rajarajan on the sexual harassment matter.
After she made the complaint with the anti-sexual harassment committee in December 2012, she was intimidated by the college management for filing the complaint. Albert Williams, the Secretary of Loyola College had asked her to withdraw the complaint but Josephine said that she would consider withdrawing if Antony Rajarajan gave her a written apology.
But, Antony Rajarajan was on to something else. He circulated across the entire campus a highly derogatory note consisting of more than 60 false accusations about Josephine. Rajarajan had resorted to this move because the committee had informed that they would be giving space ‘to accommodate Rajarajan’s view’ on the matter which is completely against the norms mandated by Vishaka Guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. Even after bringing this to light, the committee failed to take any action on Rajarajan for his act. Thus, the Loyola management had in effect committed an illegal act by paving way for slander of the victim.
The Loyola management tried to stall the enquiry against Rajarajan by not allowing the committee to proceed. Josephine made several oral representations and followed it up with multiple emails asking for a fair enquiry. But the management only tried supress the issue by constituting committees after committees. They had resorted to seeking a legal opinion on whether only a committee set as per the Vishaka Guidelines should inquire into the matter. Even after the advocate giving the opinion that the complaint should be enquired only by an exclusive anti-sexual harassment committee, Rev. G. Joseph Antony Samy S.J., who would go on to become the Principal of the college, asked Josephine to withdraw her complaint. Josephine refused and stood her ground.
In February 2013, the Principal had issued a letter stating that the internal complaints committee would proceed with the enquiry. However, it never happened. Instead, the Principal issued another letter on 5th March 2013 that included Rajarajan’s slanderous letter on Josephine thus trying to return the complaint back to her.
After her persistent efforts, the anti-sexual harassment committee conducted the enquiry on March 19, 2013. The committee submitted its report to the management on March 23, 2013.
However, this report was not served to Josephine as mandated by the Vishaka Guidelines and Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, and neither did the Loyola management take any action on the accused.
Meanwhile, Josephine had to put up with further harassment from other authorities like Father Xavier Alphonse, the main accused in the Mary Rajasekharan case, who had made remarks like “Why is this woman still here?” whenever he came across Josephine in the college premises.
In August 2013, the new Principal of Loyola College Rev. G. Joseph Antony Samy S.J., set up another committee consisting of four lady staff – Prof. Rebecca George, Prof. Judith, Prof. Chithra and Prof. Sri Kumari. They had insisted on a compromise and apparently asked Josephine “what she was expecting”.
While the Vishaka Guidelines mandate that the victim be granted leave during the period of enquiry, it turned out to be the other way around here. The perpetrator Antony Rajarajan was given two months medical leave by the Loyola management. During this period, Antony Rajarajan joined hands with another professor named A. Prince and further harassed Josephine. A. Prince, who studied in Loyola and later joined the college as a lecturer was said to be a rowdy even during his student days. He along with Antony Rajarajan conspired to make an attempt on Josephine’s life at the Nungambakkam Railway Station which was foiled, thanks to the tip-off received by Josephine.
Finally Rev. G. Joseph Antony Samy, who calls Josephine as ‘magale’ (daughter in Tamil) in a condescending tone, asked her to go to the court.
Loyola College and their absolute disregard for law and courts
Josephine filed a case at the Madras High Court (WP No. 34958/2013) seeking a copy of the internal complaints committee’s final report and asking the Registrar of University of Madras and Principal of Loyola College to take disciplinary against Antony Rajarajan and A. Prince for the sexual harassment meted out to her with an interim prayer for the protection of her job.
She had lodged a complaint with the police against Rajarajan and Prince but the police were not registering an FIR. So, she went ahead and filed a Criminal Original Petition (CRL OP No. 4427/2014) asking the court to direct the police to file an FIR against the perpetrators.
Immediately after this, on 28th February 2014, Josephine was terminated from her service without prior notice and no valid reason. When she confronted the college management asking for the reason of her termination, the Secretary of Loyola College Albert Williams told her that this was a ‘Christian minority institution’ and that they don’t need to give anybody any reason. That afternoon, she was humiliated in front of students and hounded out of the college.
The police had come to the college to enquire about the incident. However, the professors at the college were threatened by the management to not disclose anything as it would show the college in ‘bad light’.
Meanwhile, Loyola College Secretary Albert Williams informed the court that the verbal sexual harassment was made out by the internal complaints committee and that the college management imposed a punishment of ‘censure’ on Antony Rajarajan. They had submitted the punishment order copy of the punishment as proof. On the other hand, Secretary Albert Williams had given in writing to the police in response to the Criminal Original Petition that the ‘sexual harassment never happened’ and made false accusations saying that ‘Josephine and Rajarajan were good friends’ who got ‘separated due to some issue’. Principal Rev. G. Joseph Antony Samy too wrote the same in his letter to the police. Both Joseph Antony Samy and Albert Williams only blamed Josephine that ‘she was trying to take revenge’.
So, the Loyola College management had given different versions to the court and the police. Also, the management had submitted to the police the report given by the committee that enquired the corruption charges on Rajarajan and not the report of the internal complaints committee constituted for inquiring the sexual harassment charges.
Thus, Loyola College management had not just misled the police by lying but also deliberately submitted a false report to manipulate the case. Josephine is now in the process of slapping a criminal case on Loyola College management that includes Rev. Joseph Antony Samy, Albert Williams, Roseline (member of the internal complaints committee), Revathy Roberts apart from the perpetrators Antony Rajarajan and Prince.
The crimes committed by Loyola College
The offence was committed by Rajarajan in 2008 and continued till Josephine’s termination. However the complaint on the accused was taken into cognizance by the internal complaints committee only in December 2012. Section 11 (4) of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 says that an enquiry into the complaint shall be completed within a period of 90 days. The Vishaka Guideline mandate that the grievance be addressed in a time bound manner. However, it took 8 months to ‘censure’ the accused. Also, it took them 6 years to submit the report to the court.
Not just that, the then Secretary Rev. Fr. M. Albert Williams S.J and the then Principal Rev. Fr. G. Joseph Antony Samy S.J have lied to the police.
On top of that, the offender Antony Rajarajan who has been accused of sexual harassment was not only protected by the Loyola College management but was also given privileges like superannuation with salary while the victim was further victimised and terminated from the job.
Will Josephine get justice?
On 25th October 2019, the Madras High Court gave an order in favour of Josephine allowing her to initiate further action against the culprits in accordance with the law. An interim order was given on 16th June 2020 that directed the Loyola College management to not give any employee/retirement benefits for Antony Rajarajan and also to provide compensation to the Josephine within 60 days. But this has not been done. Josephine has now pinned her hopes on the judiciary to get justice.
This is the second case that has come to light from Loyola College, although this happened much before the Mary Rajasekharan case. But the pattern seems to be similar in both the cases – verbally and sexually harass women, make it impossible for them to get relief through internal complaints committee, victimise the victim by inflicting torture and agony, and finally throw them out of the job without even settling payments. This seems to be the pattern institutionalized by the institution.
Hence, it is pertinent to ask the larger question – How safe is Loyola College for women?