Gujarat: HC issues notice to state education department over PIL on ragging in state colleges

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Monday issued a notice to the state education department in a suo motu PIL on "ragging menace" after considering a recent news report about an incident at a medical college in Vadodara.

The division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri issued a notice to the additional chief secretary of the state education department. The court also issued notices to the commissioners of Higher Education, Technical Education, and Health, Medical Services and Medical Education.

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"A communication was addressed to one of us (chief justice) by a sitting judge of this court highlighting the issue of ragging menace occurring in the state of Gujarat by enclosing a newspaper report,'" the court said. Considering the said menace as reported in the newspaper on January 3, 2023, it was of the view that the concerned departments should be called for steps taken to contain the same, while issuing notices returnable on January 30, the court said.

The news report was regarding three senior resident students of a private medical college in Vadodara being suspended by the college administration for allegedly ragging a junior student. The action came after the father of the victim filed a complaint on finding that his son had left home to commit suicide due to depression after being ragged and was rescued from a railway station.

As per the news report, senior students were accused of abusing him in public, extorting money and compelling him to carry out their errands. Junior residents of an Ahmedabad-based medical college had similarly registered a ragging complaint last month. In October last year, yet another case of ragging was reported at a private university in Rajkot, where a 19-year-old student was sodomised by five senior students living in the same hostel.