Something wrong on campus, says SC, puts lens on suicides

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over a growing number of students dying by suicide on campus, Supreme Court on Monday took cognisance of the death of two students at IIT-Kharagpur and Sharda University and sought reports from the management of the institutions.“There is something wrong,” a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said while noting that the number of such cases are increasing in educatonal institutions and it was the fourth suicide case in the last seven months at IIT-Kharagpur. A fourth-year undergraduate engineering student was found dead in his room three days back and, on the same day, a BDS student from Sharda University in Greater Noida allegedly died by suicide in her hostel room.The bench sought response from both universities on steps taken by them after they came to know about the deaths and made it clear that it would initiate contempt proceedings in case there was any delay in lodging of FIRs. It directed them to file responses before July 28, when it would take up the case for hearing. The bench asked advocate Aparna Bhat to assist the court in the case.“We would like to know how promptly the FIRs were registered in both the cases.

We would also like to know who registered the FIRs. We would also like to know how promptly the management of IIT-Kharagpur and Sharda University acted no sooner they learnt about the suicides. We would also like to know what has the preliminary investigation undertaken so far revealed in both the cases,” the bench said.Senior advocate M R Shamshad, appearing for the IIT, told the court that there was no delay in reporting and the police were immediately informed.The court was examining implementation of its order by which it had directed on March 24 to Centre to set up a 10-member National Task Force under a former SC judge to address the problem of suicide on campus. Noting that 98 students had died by suicide in top premier educational institutes since 2018 — out of which 39 were from IITs, 25 from NITs, 25 from central universities, four from IIMs, three from Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and two from IIITs — SC had enthrusted it to the task force headed by Justice (retired) Ravindra Bhat to analyse and suggest measures to prevent suicide on campus.Four months down the line, the committee has not started functioning due to lack of logistical support and the bench directed the Centre to provide them facilities including space so that they could discharge the functions mandated to it. The high-level panel, comprised of experts from various fields including psychiatry and clinical psychology, has been given the task to identify various causes which lead to suicides by students: including but not limited to ragging, caste-based discrimination, gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, academic pressure, financial burden, mental health related stigma, tribal identity, disability, sexual orientation, political views, religious belief or any other grounds.