Two top officials from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Chennai, were booked for practicing caste-based discrimination against a senior official from a ‘Dalit’ community.
As per media reports, an FIR was filed on the complaint of K Ilanchezhian, a senior assistant director of NIFT.
NIFT is a premier institute under the Ministry of Textiles.
Apparel Resources has approached NIFT in this regard and will update here as and when it receives any update.
As per the FIR, Anitha Mabel Manohar, Campus Director of the institute, humiliated the victim by shifting his office from the main building to a room in the student’s hostel. She also allotted the office space to a junior researcher who belonged to a dominant case.
Following this, Illanchezhian was informed about the discrimination of the higher-ups in Delhi and they ordered to shift him back to his room. However, Anitha, reportedly, refused to follow the order and issued another order to ensure that he stayed in the hostel, said the report.
As per reports, FIR has also named the Joint Director of the Institute B Narasimhan. Both the officials of NIFT have been booked under various sections of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Anitha has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash a case booked against her under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.
It has been said that two years ago, Anitha also, reportedly, filed a complaint against Ilanchezhian with Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).
However, the ICC had communicated to Anitha that the complaint does not fall under their purview.
