NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday wanted to know from the Centre, University Grants Commission and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) the steps taken to prevent death by suicide of students, many belonging to SC and ST community, due to discrimination in universities and higher educational institutions (HEIs).
Arguing for PIL petitioners Abeda Salim Tadvi and Radhika Vemula, mothers of two students who died by suicide, senior advocate Indira Jaising told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan that unabated discriminatory atmosphere prevailing in many Universities and HEIs, because of non-implementation of UGC (Promotion of Equity in HEIs) Regulation, 2012, is the prime reason for such unfortunate suicides by dalit and tribal students.
The bench said the court looking into the sensitivity has pulled out the PIL, which was filed five years ago, for hearing and intends to devise modalities for constant monitoring of the academic atmosphere in the universities, be it central, state, deemed or private, and higher educational institutions.
Jaising said as many as 115 students, mostly belonging to the SC and ST communities, have died by suicide in the IITs alone in last two decades. Justice Kant said, “We are conscious of the sensitive issue. We must find some modality to translate the regulations into reality.”
Jaising said under the 2012 regulations, every university was mandated to establish ‘Equal Opportunity Cells’ headed by an anti-discrimination officer. However, the majority of the 800-odd universities have not set up these equality cells. She also questioned the rationale behind a single officer heading these cells and suggested these cells be made multi-member bodies to include social activists and representatives from NGOs.
The bench criticised the UGC for not notifying the draft regulations, which it had said was framed in 2023, till date and ordered that the new regulations must be notified without any delay and placed for consideration of the court.
It also directed the UGC to collect data from all universities which have set up equality cells as per the requirement of the 2012 Regulations within six weeks and file an additional affidavit incorporating the same. The bench requested solicitor general Tushar Mehta to assist the court in the case.
The bench said it learnt from the record that no effective hearing has taken place in the petition since issuance of notice to UGC by the SC on Sep 20, 2019. “We will hear it periodically,” it said.
