University Body UGC Needs "Teeth" To Tackle Caste Discrimination In Colleges: Top Court

The Supreme Court on Friday called for a "robust mechanism to tackle" the issue of caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions like IIMs and IITs. The court also lamented the "extremely unfortunate" incidents - 18 in the past 14 months - of suicide in these universities.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh observed the UGC, or the University Grants Commission, "must be given teeth" to prescribe punitive punishment in such cases.

"We will create a robust mechanism to tackle the issue. We will take things to a logical conclusion," the court told the petitioners - the mothers of Rohit Vemula (a PhD scholar at a Hyderabad university who died by suicide in 2016) and Payal Tadvi (a medical student at Mumbai's TN Topiwala National Medical College, who died, also by suicide, in 2019).

The court then posted the next hearing after eight weeks.

Both Mr Vemula and Ms Tadvi faced caste-based discrimination. Their deaths made national headlines and triggered a furious social and political row but, as the months passed, their stories slipped out of focus, to be replaced by other horrific reports of violence and abuse.

READ | 3 Doctors, Accused Of Driving Payal Tadvi To Kill Herself, Arrested

Appearing for the mothers, senior advocate Indira Jaising told the court universities and colleges had yet to submit complete data about deaths by suicides on their campus.

This, she said, was despite a court order mandating filing of this data.

She also said around 40 per cent of universities and over double that percentage of colleges had not yet created systems to address inequalities among student populations, including caste and gender.

Solicitor-General Tishar Mehta, appearing for the centre, said the UGC had formulated draft regulations that address a majority of the petitioners' concerns. These, he said, had been uploaded on the UGC website so the public and stakeholders could offer suggestions, if any.

READ | "Will Do Something...": Court On Caste Discrimination In Colleges

Ms Jaising responded by asking for a final hearing before the rules are formalised, but Mr Mehta objected, saying "If they want to give suggestions they can do so through the website..."

The Vemula-Tadvi Petition

The original petition was filed back in 2019 and sought the court's aid in enforcing fundamental rights against discrimination on caste grounds, and also to equality and life. It alleged "rampant prevalence" of caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions across India.

It was also argued that existing UGC regulations, framed in 2012, were proving to be inadequate, particularly since "they do not have any sanction for violation of norms".

READ | Mothers Of Vemula, Tadvi Move Top Court Over Campus Caste Bias

"There should be some rules, like Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, and the anti-ragging law, which provides for punitive action in case of violation," Ms Jaising had said.

Last month a bench of Justice AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh asked the UGC for steps taken, and proposed to take, to provide a non-discriminatory and safe environment for all students.

With input from agencies

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