SC Orders FIRs in IIT-Delhi Suicides, Sets Up Task Force

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a police investigation into the 2023 deaths by suicide of two IIT-Delhi students belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, asserting that law enforcement authorities cannot bypass due process "just because something happened in the hostel of an eminent educational institution like IIT-Delhi".

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI:

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan also constituted a 10-member task force, to be chaired by former top court judge S Ravindra Bhat, to examine the issue of deaths by suicide of students across educational institutions and recommend policy measures.

The petition in the matter was filed jointly by the parents of the two IIT students who claimed the deaths were not suicides but murders, alleging a conspiracy by IIT faculty to cover up caste-based harassment.

In January 2024, the Delhi high court declined to order an FIR, citing a status report by the Delhi government, which found no evidence of caste-based discrimination.

Setting aside the high court order, the Supreme Court criticized the Delhi Police for prematurely concluding that the students were suffering from depression due to academic pressure.

It noted: "Even if the police was of the view that there was no element of truth in what had been alleged by the appellants, it could have said so only after registering an FIR and conducting an investigation pursuant thereto."