Educational institutions should immediately inform the police about the suicide of students – Supreme Court (file photo)
PTI, New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all higher educational institutions across the country to inform the police as soon as they get information about suicide or unnatural death of any student.
Issuing various directions, the apex court said that higher educational institutions cannot shy away from their fundamental duty to provide an overall safe, equitable, inclusive and conducive learning environment to the students.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan also directed higher educational institutions to submit annual reports on suicide or unnatural deaths of students to the UGC and regulators related to professional courses.
The bench said – All higher educational institutions will have to inform the police about any suicide or unnatural death of any student as soon as information about the incident is received. This should include all students, whether they are studying in the classroom, through distance learning or online. These include all incidents on campus, hostel or outside the campus.
The Supreme Court ordered that medical aid should be available round the clock in every residential higher educational institution. If not on the campus then within a radius of one kilometer, so that emergency medical aid can be provided to the students.
It should be ensured that all vacant faculty posts in both public and private institutions are filled within a period of four months. These include both teaching and non-teaching category posts. Priority should be given to posts reserved for marginalized and under-represented communities.