The Supreme Court, on January 3, asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to collate and furnish data regarding the total number of complaints of caste discrimination received under its 2012 regulations in universities and higher educational institutions in the country.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked UGC to submit data on how many Central, state, deemed and private universities and higher educational institutions have set up Equal Opportunity Cells and the total number of complaints received under the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012 along with action taken reports.
It took into consideration the submission of UGC that pursuant to certain recommendations, a new set of regulations has been formulated. The top court directed the UGC to notify regulations and place the same on record.
The order was passed on a PIL filed by the mothers of Rohit Vemula and Payal Tadvi, assailing caste discrimination in higher educational institutions.
As the bench was informed that as many as 115 suicides have taken place in IITs alone between 2004 and 2024, it remarked that the court is “cognisant of the sensitivity of the matter” and would begin hearing it periodically to find out a mechanism that would translate the 2012 Regulations into a reality.
During the hearing of the case, senior advocate Indira Jaising, representing petitioners, contended that UGC failed to implement the 2012 regulations, which were intended to put an end to discrimination based on caste in higher educational institutions.
She requested the bench to seek data from the Central government and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council – regarding data about the number of suicides by students belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe category in higher educational institutions. The bench then asked Union and NAAC to file counter-affidavits within four weeks.
Rohit Vemula, a PhD scholar at Hyderabad Central University, died by suicide on January 17, 2016, reportedly due to caste discrimination.
Payal Tadvi, a tribal student at Tamil Nadu Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai, also died by suicide on May 22, 2019, as she was allegedly subjected to caste-based discrimination by her upper-caste peers.
In 2019, their mothers filed a PIL in the top court seeking a mechanism to end caste-based discrimination on campuses. They claimed that there is a rampant prevalence of caste discrimination against members of the SC/ST community.
They also sought a direction to all Universities and higher educational institutions to establish Equal Opportunity Cells on the lines of other existing anti-discrimination internal complaints mechanisms and to include members from the SC/ST communities and independent representatives from NGOs or social activists to ensure objectivity and impartiality in the process.
(With inputs from ANI)
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