The National Human Rights Commission on Monday said it has sent a notice to the West Bengal government over reports of the death of a first-year Jadavpur University student on campus allegedly after being subjected to ragging.
The commission said in a statement here that it has taken ”suo motu cognisance of a media report that a first-year student of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal became a victim of ragging, and died on 10th August 2023, after falling from the second-floor balcony of the varsity’s hostel”.
”Reportedly, the fellow students of the victim had tried to bring the matter to the notice of the Dean but unfortunately, their efforts went in vain,” the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) statement said.
The commission also said that the media report indicates ”negligence, lack of supervision and inherent failure” of the college administration due to which a young student, reportedly undergoing the trauma of ragging, lost his life.
The content of the media report, if true, amounts to a violation of the human rights of the student, it said.
Accordingly, the NHRC said it has issued a notice to the chief secretary of West Bengal, seeking a report within four weeks. ”It should include the reasons for the prima facie failure of the institution to take adequate steps to prevent ragging in accordance with the UGC regulation and the steps taken or proposed to punish the perpetrators,” the commission added.
The report must also contain the measures being initiated by the state government for spreading awareness about the menace of ragging among the student community and teaching associations, the statement said.
The commission has also noted that the Supreme Court in the University of Kerala vs Council, Principals’ Colleges, Kerala [(2009) 7 SCC 726] case has held that heads of institutions or members of the administration mandatorily be penalised for not taking timely action against ragging for failure to sensitize teaching or non-teaching staff or employees working in the hostels and messes.
”Therefore, a notice has also been issued to the Director General of Police, West Bengal, regarding the status of the criminal case registered against all the responsible students and teaching or non-teaching staff of the college concerned as reported in the news report,” it added.
A further notice has been issued to the registrar of Jadavpur University to submit a detailed report regarding the steps taken for effective implementation of the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee report, affirmed by the Supreme Court of India, to solve the problem of ragging in the University, the statement said.
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