New Delhi, July 6: 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.
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.
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.
The counsel for UGC said the Commission is aware of the situation and has written to vice-chancellors of universities and college principals.
(PTI)
Supreme Court terms discrimination in educational institutions a ‘serious issue’, asks UGC to curb it
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