NEW DELHI
The Calcutta High Court in the case Sudip Raha v Jadavpur University & Ors and Sayan Banerjee v State of WB & orsobserved and has expressed concerns over the endemic of ragging prevalent across Universities in West Bengal, and the non-implementation of a report by the RK Raghavan Committee, which was being constituted in the year 2009 by the Supreme Court to reduce instances of ragging.
The Division bench comprising of CJ TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya in the case observed and has directed the implementation of the report of the committees.
In the present case, the plea arose out of the unfortunate death of a 1st year student at Jadavpur University, due to incidents which relates to the ragging and violence.
It has been pointed out by the petitioner that the RK Raghavan report’s recommendations on regular conduct of student elections, as well as constitution of anti-ragging committees and anti-ragging squads had not yet been implemented. It has been directed by the said court to the State to immediately issue directions for conduct of student union elections in the Universities through the State and forthwith direct for the constitution of anti-ragging committees and anti-ragging squads, with functionaries as pointed out in the committee report.
It has been submitted by the petitioner, an advocate appearing-in-person that he was the law student between 2012-2017, and that the committee report, which had been validated by the Supreme Court in 2009, had shown no signs of being implemented throughout the State.
The Petitioner in the plea submitted before the court that he had contacted students from various State Universities, who had conveyed to him that their respective Universities had no provisions for an anti-ragging committee or anti-ragging squads.
Further, it has been argued by the State that the Universities would have to apply for permission if they wished to conduct elections, and that the State would also provide all the machinery needed.
In an another Public Interest Litigation, PIL moved against the Jadavpur University for its alleged mismanagement and ragging which directly led to the death of the 1st year student.
The court noted the fact that various student unions which were directed to be arraigned at the last hearing, had become defunct.
The court in the case observed that the University would need to conduct a door-to-door drive of its hostels to ensure that ex-students do not continue living on campus by giving them 24 hours to vacate their rooms, thus, it has also been noted by the said court that the aforesaid defunct student unions could not continue issuing statements on University’s affairs.
Accordingly, the court listed the matter for further consideration on September 26, 2023.