The Supreme Court reversed the High Court’s judgment regarding the sexual harassment case involving ten staff of the Tagtse College of Language and Culture Studies. According to the Supreme Court’s judgment passed last week, reinstating the lecturers would set a bad precedent since their conduct had violated the Teacher’s Code of Conduct. The High Court in August last year ordered the reinstatement of seven lecturers and left the college to decide the reinstatement of the three convicted lecturers.
On 10th May 2019, the college compulsorily retired seven lecturers and terminated the contracts of three lecturers following an accusation of sexual harassment against them by 19 girls.
The ten lecturers then filed a wrongful termination civil case to the Trongsa district court against the college and the Royal University of Bhutan. The district court found that the college did not follow the university’s Human Resource Rules and Regulations.
The court ordered the college to reinstate the seven lecturers after the police investigating the allegations dropped all the charges against them. However, the three remaining lecturers were convicted of sexual harassment and were sentenced to three to nine months in prison.
The college administration and the Office of the Vice Chancellor then appealed to the High Court. However, the High Court upheld the district court’s judgment.
Following that, the college and the Office of the Vice Chancellor then appealed to Supreme Court.
Besides overturning the lower court’s judgment, the Supreme Court also warned the college and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for not following due process while investigating the matter and terminating the ten staff.
Kinzang Lhadon
Edited by Kipchu
