Resignation of professor over Instagram post of her in swimsuit sparks privacy debate

A female professor of Kolkata's St Xavier's University was asked to resign and pay a fine of 99 crores ($12.4 million) after she posted a picture of herself in a bikini on the social media platform Instagram.

The university's decision has triggered a privacy debate on social media with netizens asking whether it is alright to judge someone's professional capability on the basis of their personal life.

It comes after the female teacher moved to another state and filed a written petition in Calcutta High Court against the university's decision of asking her for an ''unconditional apology'' due to the ''immense and irreparable damage'' caused by her to its reputation.

The female teacher has argued that a student's guardian complained about her personal photos to the vice-chancellor of the university but she did not receive any copy of the written complaint.

The guardian said, ''I was appalled to find my son looking at some pictures of Prof. where she has posed in a sexually explicit way causing deliberate public exposure.''

''To look at a teacher dressed in her undergarments and uploading pictures on social media is utterly shameful for me as a parent since I have tried to shield my son from this kind of gross indecency and objectification of the female body. 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.''

According to her, ''I heard what was read out and was asked to quit.''

Filing a complaint at the Jadavpur police station, she is inquiring how her posts on Instagram were leaked to a third person when they should have been accessible to only her close group of friends.

''It's important to find out if her social media expression had affected her teaching duties; if not, then connecting social media expression to professional duties is not justified,'' said Upal Chakrabarti, assistant professor of sociology at Presidency University.

Four years ago, Xavier's University issued a controversial circular stating “Avoid wearing revealing and indecent dresses like too short pants from January 2018."

(With inputs from agencies)

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