RK Pachauri to be Executive Vice Chairman in spite of sexual harrassment allegations

Notwithstanding allegations of sexual harassment by a former colleague, TERI Chief RK Pachauri was on Monday appointed Executive Vice Chairman of the green body after new Director General Ajay Mathur took over the charge from him.

"Dr. Ajay Mathur has joined as Director General of TERI. The Governing Council of TERI has appointed Dr. R K Pachauri as the Executive Vice Chairman with immediate effect," a TERI official said. The post of Executive Vice Chairman has been recently created and Pachauri will be the first to hold the post.

Mathur is a former Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, an institution under the Power Ministry. Pachauri headed TERI, which works in the field of sustainable development, energy and climate change, for the past 35 years.

In February last year, a junior colleague had accused him of sexual harassment following which he had to proceed on leave but joined work in July with a court quashing the internal committee report that found him guilty of misconduct. He was removed as chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body of scientists that makes periodic assessment of climate change science, as well.