Court to hear Pachauri’s plea to attend meet

A Delhi court will on Wednesday hear a plea by environmentalist R K Pachauri for permission to visit China and Japan to attend a global meet on environmental issues. Pachauri, accused in a sexual harassment case, in his application moved on Tuesday said that as a renowned scientist on global climate change, he was scheduled to deliver a lecture on a report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the International Ecosystem Management Partnership (IEMP) in China from August 22-28.

Afterwards, he said, he was also scheduled to attend a meeting in Tokyo. After the sexual harassment complaint, Pachauri stepped down as chairperson of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February and proceeded on leave from The Energy and Resources Institute as its director-general.

Pachauri, who was accused of sexual harassment by a younger colleague, was removed in July as head of the non-profit think tank TERI.  

The body’s governing council replaced him with Dr Ajay Mathur, currently head of the Bureau of 

Energy Efficiency, a government body.