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The Supreme Court has appointed a former judge to investigate student suicides in educational institutions across India.
Supreme Court directs Delhi Police to probe the deaths of two IIT-Delhi students from the SC/ST community in 2023.
The Supreme Court has appointed former judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat to lead a task force investigating student suicides in educational institutions across the country. The decision comes in response to growing concerns over the increasing number of suicides among students, particularly from marginalised communities.
The apex court also directed the Delhi Police to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of two IIT-Delhi students from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities who died by suicide in 2023.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan noted that several students had died in college hostels due to issues like sexual harassment, ragging, and caste discrimination in the past two months. The court said these were not isolated incidents and needed deeper investigation.
To address this issue, the court ordered the formation of a task force led by former Supreme Court judge S Ravindra Bhat. The task force will submit a report within four months, identifying the reasons behind student suicides and suggesting ways to prevent them. The committee will also include officials from the higher education, social justice, women and child development, and legal affairs departments.
This decision came after the parents of two IIT Delhi students who died by suicide in 2023 filed a petition. They alleged that their children faced harassment on campus, but the police closed the case after a basic investigation.
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The court ruled that this closure was wrong, stating that if there were harassment allegations, the police should have registered an FIR (First Information Report) instead of just relying on inquest proceedings, which only determine the cause of death.
