Supreme Court Issues Notice On Parents' Plea For Independent Probe Into Death Of Children Belonging To Scheduled Castes At IIT Delhi

The Supreme Court today issued notice on a plea filed by parents of two students belonging to the Scheduled Caste category, who died at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi this year. The parents have sought registration of FIR and independent investigation into the deaths by a centralized agency.

The order was passed by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Briefly stated, the petition impugns order dated 30.01.2024 passed by the High Court of Delhi, whereby a writ petition filed by the petitioners seeking inter-alia registration of FIRs and CBI investigation into the deaths of their sons at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, was dismissed.

As per claims, the sons of petitioner Nos. 2 and 3 were students of B. Tech at IIT Delhi and died in the premises thereof. While the son of petitioner No. 2 died on the night of 01.09.2023, the son of petitioner No. 3 died on the night of 08.07.2023.

Both the students came from the Scheduled Caste communities and suffered atrocities and discrimination on this account, the petitioners allege. It is further claimed that the facts surrounding the deceased students' deaths suggest that they were murdered. However, despite repeated complaints by the petitioners, no action has been taken by the respondents.

The petitioners' grievance is that the High Court dismissed the writ petition, "solely by relying on the Status Report of the Police, without considering various discrepancies and contradictions pointed out by the petitioners".

"The Hon'ble High Court further failed to even call for the inquest reports of the deceased victims and concluded that the sons of the Petitioners No. 2 and 3 had died due to suicide, although there was no material before the Hon'ble High Court to reach such a conclusion", states the plea.

Proceedings before Delhi High Court

The petitioners submitted that the deceased students were bright students with good academic career who cracked the prestigious JEE-Advanced and got admission in IIT Delhi, but they faced caste based discrimination at the hands of some of the faculty members. Further, they alleged that the police officials were acting in connivance with the administration of IIT Delhi, and deliberately following dilatory tactics so that all evidences were systematically destroyed.

It was further the petitioners' case that Section 4(2)(b) of the SC/ST Act, 1989 provides for registration of an FIR. As such, the police officials willfully neglected their duties.

The State, on the other hand, urged that there was nothing to show that the deceased faced caste based discrimination in the IIT Campus. In fact, as per the detailed enquiry conducted by the officials, the deceased were failing in multiple subjects and performing poorly. It was suggested that they most likely committed suicide by hanging on account of the fact that they were not able to withstand the pressure to perform better.

As per the State, statements of several other students of IIT, Delhi who belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were also taken, wherein nothing cropped up to suggest that the deceased were murdered in the campus. Rather, none of them reported any caste-based discrimination by faculty members or anybody else. Moreover, except the Dean of Academics, no one knew the category of students.

Going through the material, the High Court noted that the officials conducted a thorough and detailed enquiry, wherein it was borne out that both the deceased were failing in multiple subjects and as per the statements of their family and friends, both were under pressure to perform better.

The Court acknowledged the plight of the petitioner-parents, but observed that nothing had come up during the enquiry to suggest that the deceased students faced any kind of caste based discrimination by the faculty members or staff in IIT, Delhi.

The Court declined to issue a writ of mandamus "merely on the basis of sympathy or sentiments". Be that as it may, it was added that the faculty as well as other staff members of IIT shall make conscious efforts and endeavors to counsel, encourage, motivate and invigorate students.

"It is of utmost priority to make the young minds understand that though scoring good marks and performing your best is important but it is not the most important thing in life and one can certainly give his/her best without succumbing to the pressures or stress of performing better. The most significant way of instilling this into young minds who face challenges everyday in the professional and competitive environment of colleges is by teaching them in the very same campus where they spend years of their students lives, the values of prioritizing their health, be it physical or mental, which will also give then1 the confidence to face every challenge in life", the Court said.

Case Title: AMIT KUMAR & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS., Diary No. 40105/2024