India, June 25 -- In a significant relief to a doctoral researcher, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar to restore a PhD scholar to its Chemistry programme, holding that her resignation was not voluntary but submitted under "compelling circumstances" after her harassment complaint allegedly went unaddressed.

Justice Kuldeep Tiwari set aside IIT-Ropar's November 22, 2025 decision accepting the scholar's resignation, observing that the institute processed and approved her resignation with unusual haste on the very day it was submitted. "The Court has no hesitation to declare that the resignation was not voluntary, rather, it was under compelling circumstances," Justice Tiwari held ...