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Examine whether ragging laws need a change, HC tells Kerala government
The HC asked the state to look into amending the existing law especially in the backdrop of the UGC bringing out new guidelines and directing colleges and universities to activate anti-ragging panels
The Kerala high court on Wednesday underlined the need to frame rules under the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998 to deal with ragging offences in educational institutions, adding that the current state legislation was inadequate.
The HC orally asked the state government to look into amending the existing law especially in the backdrop of the University Grants Commission (UGC) bringing out new guidelines in recent years and directing colleges and universities to activate anti-ragging committees.
The special bench of chief justice Nitin Jamdar and justice C Jayachandran made the observations while hearing a plea filed by Kerala Legal Service Authority (KeLSA) requesting stringent directions to curb ragging offences in the state.
The HC’s observations come in the backdrop of a string of reports of ragging in the state’s educational institutions. Last month, cases of torture and abuse of junior students by their seniors in the name of ragging at the Government Nursing College in Kottayam was reported. Five male students were arrested for stripping juniors, using compasses to injure their body and extorting money from them to purchase alcohol. Separate incidents of ragging were also reported at a government higher secondary school in Kannur and the government college in Karyavattom, Thiruvananthapuram.
The HC bench on Wednesday said the state should consider forming a working group of people from various disciplines and invite suggestions from the public on the framing of rules to make the legislation stringent.
The court also asked the State to furnish details of the role of the state-level monitoring cell and the district anti-ragging committees as mandated under the UGC directions. Universities must also provide information to the State on the status of the anti-ragging committees in their campuses.
