New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to specify steps it has taken and proposed to take, to provide non-discriminatory, enabling environment for the students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes in institutions of higher learning, terming it a “very serious issue”.
A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh asked the UGC to furnish the details of steps taken on a plea by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who had allegedly died by suicide following alleged caste-based discrimination in their educational institutions, PTI reported.
While Vemula, a dalit Ph.D scholar at Hyderabad Central University, had ended his life on January 17, 2016, Tadvi, a tribal student at TN Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, took the extreme step on May 22, 2019 due to alleged caste-based discrimination by three doctors of her institution.
“This is a very serious issue. Whatever concerns are raised… how do you propose to deal with it and what steps have you taken to address these grievances? This issue is non-adversarial and the UGC needs to take some concrete action. It is for the benefit of students and their parents. Steps taken would ensure that these types of incidents don’t happen in future,” the bench told the counsel appearing for the UGC, as reported by the news agency.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for the mothers of Vemula and Tadvi, said they have lost their son and daughter respectively, and in the past one year three more students studying at a National Law School, a medical college and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay have taken their lives.
“Therefore, there is a sense of urgency about this petition. It would be appropriate that UGC formulates binding guidelines which can be followed by institutes of higher learning.
“It is unfortunate that the existing guidelines do not have a binding effect as they do not have any sanction for violation of the norms. There should be some regulations like Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) at Workplace Act and the anti-ragging law, which provides for punitive action in case of violation”, Jaising said.
She said equity regulations framed by the UGC in 2012 to address the complaints of caste discrimination on campuses are proving to be inadequate.
On September 20, 2019, the top court had issued notice on the plea by the mothers of Vemula and Tadvi, seeking to end caste bias in universities and other higher education institutions across the country.
It had sought responses from the Centre and the UGC on the petition.
