New Delhi, Feb 11: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sent out
a loud and clear message to students who rag colleagues and
said that if they are prima facie found guilty they would be
immediately suspended from their institution.
"Ragging in essence is a human rights' abuse," the court observed.
The apex court fastened the responsibility of acting
against culprits on their respective educational institutes
and said it would be "binding" on them to use an iron hand to
end the menace.
The court said educational institutions will have
to take "urgent action" on receiving information on incidents
of ragging and "if a student is prima facie found guilty of
indulging in ragging he/she would be immediately suspended
pending the inquiry".
Further, it said that all educational institutions in
their admission prospectus should carry instructions with
regard to ragging and clearly indicate that those indulging in
it could face strict action.
The directions to check ragging were based on the
recommendations made by an apex court-appointed committee,
headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan, and were delivered
by a Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and M K Sharma,
which accepted its report.
The Bench asked state governments and Union Territories
to act in terms of guidelines recommended by the committee to
end the menace of ragging in educational institutions across
the country.
The apex court, which has already banned ragging, said
the recommendations made by its committee would be "binding"
on all educational institutions.
All institutes should take urgent action immediately on
receiving information about ragging and inform the police, the
Bench said.
It said guidelines for ensuring ban on ragging in
universities/colleges, shall also apply to colleges under the
Medical Council of India (MCI), Dental Council of India;
polytechnics and those institutes under the Ministry of
Agriculture.
The court said strict action would be taken against
the errant institutions and would be made culpable if any
failure, negligence or deliberate delay is found in lodging
FIR with the local police.
The educational institutions would have to constitute
special anti-ragging committees or squads to check the menace.
The voluminous report of the Raghavan Committee was
placed in the apex court on May 16, 2007 and directions were
passed from time to time on its basis, till it was finally
accepted today.
The court posted the matter for further hearing in March.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 00:00