A professor St Xavier's University in Kolkata has decided to move the Calcutta High Court against the university authorities. This comes months after she was ''forced'' to quit after the father of an undergraduate (UG) student complained to the authorities of the institution that the professor wore a swimsuit in an Instagram Story which he found objectionable and sexually explicit.
The woman, who wished not to be named, joined the university in August last year and she was forced to quit in October, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
''I was told that a parent of an undergraduate student had found that his son was looking at my photographs from my personal Instagram account which he found objectionable and sexually explicit. There were two pictures of me that I had posted as an Instagram story last year, several weeks before joining the university. There was no way those photos could be still accessible since an Instagram story, by default, is live for only 24 hours. My Instagram profile is private, not public. Those pictures could not have been viewed by my student weeks after,'' the professor said.
In a complaint lodged with Kolkata police, the woman said, ''It is a mystery how the university accessed those pictures. I felt distressed and humiliated. I was in a meeting where my private pictures were being circulated among people without my consent. The only way in which such Instagram stories can be accessed by the others is by hacking or someone taking screenshots of the pictures when they had been posted.''
The letter from the parent, which was read to the professor, said, ''Recently, I was appalled to find my son looking at some pictures where she has posed in a sexually explicit way causing deliberate public exposure. It is obscene, vulgar and improper for a 18-year-old student to see his professor dressed in scanty clothes exhibiting her body on a public platform.'
Responding to the professor's legal notice, the university said that it is an ''ill-motivated'' and ''dishonest'' attempt to open a close case and has sought an unconditional apology along with Rs 99 crore for causing ''irreparable damage'' to the university.
