'Extremely Unfortunate’: SC on IIT, IIM suicides; assures measures

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said incidents of suicides in IITs and IIMs were “extremely unfortunate” and assured a robust mechanism to check such cases. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was informed by senior advocate Indira Jaising that in past 14 months, 18 suicides took place in Indian Institutes Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). "It is extremely unfortunate what is happening. We will create a robust mechanism to check this situation. We will take this issue to the logical conclusion," it said.

Jaising, appearing for the mothers of students Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who allegedly died by suicide after facing caste-based discrimination , said universities and colleges hadn't given entire data on suicides taking place in their campuses despite a court order. While Vemula, a PhD scholar at Hyderabad Central University died on January 17, 2016, Tadvi, a student at TN Topiwala National Medical College, died on May 22, 2019, after she was subjected to purported discrimination by three doctors in her college. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the University Grants Commission (UGC) had formulated draft regulations, which took care of majority of the concerns raised by the petitioners, and were uploaded on its website inviting suggestions and objections from the public.

Lack of equal opportunity cells

Jaising said 40 per cent of the universities and 80 per cent of the colleges had not created equal opportunity cells in their campuses. The bench asked Jaising and other counsel appearing in the matter to give suggestions on the draft regulations and directed the UGC to look into these suggestions. Jaising urged the court to give a hearing before finalisation of the regulations, but Mehta opposed it saying every other person would seek a personal hearing, if allowed. "If they want to give any suggestions, then they can do so through the website but personal hearing cannot be allowed," he submitted. The bench told Jaising it appreciates the cause raised by the petitioner and assured that court would take it to its logical conclusion.

Caste-based discrimination

The matter was posted after eight weeks. On January 3, the court called it a sensitive issue and offered to devise an effective mechanism to combat caste-based discrimination in educational institutions in the country. It directed the UGC to notify draft regulations to ensure no caste-based discrimination happened with students in the central, state, private and deemed universities and asked for data on the number of institutions that had established equal opportunity cells in compliance with the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions Regulations) 2012. The petitioners said from 2004 till now over 50 students (mostly from SC/ST) had killed themselves in IITs and other institutions after facing such discrimination.

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On September 20, 2019, the top court issued notice on the PIL which also sought to enforce the fundamental rights, particularly the Right to Equality, Right to Prohibition of Discrimination against caste, and the Right to Life. The plea alleged "rampant prevalence" of caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions throughout the country and sought directions to the Centre and the UGC to strictly ensure the enforcement and compliance of the 2012 regulations. The plea sought establishment of equal opportunity cells on campuses on the lines of similarly existing anti-discrimination internal complaints mechanisms, and have representation from the SC/ST, NGOs or social sector to ensure objectivity and impartiality. It also sought all universities to take strong disciplinary action against victimisation of students or staff over caste-based discrimination and protecting students from any hostility in campuses.