SC issues nationwide norms amid rising student suicides

The Supreme Court on Friday issued sweeping nationwide guidelines mandating mental health safeguards, mandatory counsellors, and regulatory frameworks for all educational institutions across India, responding to an alarming rise in student suicides.

- Utkarsh Anand and Abraham Thomas

The ruling by justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta covers private coaching centres, schools, colleges, universities, training academies, and hostels, describing the situation as a “systemic failure that cannot be ignored.”

The judgment held that the gravity of the crisis warranted constitutional intervention, as it drew upon powers under Article 32 of the Constitution to enforce fundamental rights, and treating its pronouncement as the law of the land under Article 141.

The ruling emerged from the case of a 17-year-old NEET aspirant, identified as Ms X, who died at a hostel while preparing for medical entrance examinations at Aakash Byju’s Institute in Visakhapatnam on July 14, 2023. The court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to take over the probe after the girl’s father challenged an Andhra Pradesh high court order of February 14, 2024, that had dismissed his plea for CBI investigation.

The bench noted such distress among young people was “emblematic of a deeper, structural malaise that afflicts India’s educational ecosystem,” citing “deeply distressing” National Crime Records Bureau data showing India recorded 170,924 suicide cases in 2022, of which 7.6% — approximately 13,044 — were student suicides. Of these, 2,248 deaths were attributed directly to examination failures.