A Delhi court on Saturday allowed former United Nations climate panel chief and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) director general Rajendra K. Pachauri, facing sexual harassment allegations, to enter the headoffice of TERI.
Pachauri, who headed TERI for more than 30 years, is accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researcher from his think-tank. He has denied the allegations.
"Today, court after considering our application and observing that the investigation is pending for last nine months and that the victim has already resigned plus the fact that the victim has filed an application in the honourable High Court wherein she has pleaded that she should be permitted to work from home, has said Pachuari can now enter in any of the TERI premises and continue his normal work," said defence lawyer Ashish Dixit here.
The woman complainant had earlier this month resigned from TERI, accusing it of mistreating and not protecting her as an employee.
Pachauri (74) was granted anticipatory bail in the case in March this year and was allowed to enter his office premises, barring the entry into the head office and the Gurgaon office.
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In July, he was removed from TERI, which he headed for more than 30 years.
The woman claimed the Indian scientist began harassing her by sending her unwanted emails, text and WhatsApp messages soon after she joined the non-profit think-tank in September 2013. Her lawyers say Pachauri persisted despite her requests to stop doing so.
Pachauri's lawyers had said his computer and mobile phone were hacked and that vested interests were maligning him because of his stance on global warming.
Pachauri, who had been the chair of the U.N. Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002, was forced to quit in February this year, ending 13 turbulent years in charge of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group.
He was one of the world's leading voices on the issue of global warming, before he quit.
