New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought urgent responses from IIT Kharagpur and Sharda University in separate cases of student suicides reported on the same day last week. Issuing suo motu notice, the top court questioned whether FIRs had been promptly filed in line with its March 2025 ruling that mandated mandatory registration of police cases in such incidents.
A bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan cautioned that failure to comply with the directive could attract contempt of court proceedings. “Something is clearly wrong with the system. We need to examine this issue with urgency,” the bench observed while issuing notices to the institutions and the respective state police authorities.
The court’s intervention follows the death of 21-year-old Ritam Mondal, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at IIT Kharagpur, whose body was found in his hostel room on July 18. This was the fifth suicide reported from the prestigious institute in the past year. On the same day, a 21-year-old BDS student, Jyoti Jongda, was found dead in her hostel room at Sharda University in Greater Noida. A suicide note allegedly naming two faculty members for mental harassment was recovered, and the duo was subsequently arrested.
The Supreme Court asked both institutes to clarify if the police had been informed without delay and whether the FIRs were registered as mandated. Any lapse, the court noted, would be viewed seriously and may lead to punitive action. The court warned of contempt of court if FIRs are delayed.
The court’s March 24 order had called for immediate FIRs in all cases of student suicides in educational institutions and had also formed a national task force under former Supreme Court judge Justice S. Ravindra Bhat to examine broader systemic issues contributing to such deaths.
In a related development, IIT Kharagpur has constituted an external expert panel comprising psychologists, alumni, legal professionals and police officials to interact with students and suggest preventive measures. The panel met hostel representatives and members of the student council over the weekend and is expected to recommend both short-term support structures and long-term institutional reforms.
The Supreme Court has asked for compliance reports before the next hearing and indicated that heads of institutions or investigating officers could be summoned if the response is found lacking.
