It is so astonishing to see that inspite of so many ragging incidents that we keep reading time and again, ragging has not been made punishable under IPC separately. Why are our lawmakers sleeping on it? Why has it not been made punishable separately? We all know that lawmakers are now revising the penal laws. They must take note of increasing incidents of ragging also in different educational institutions also and take steps promptly to make ragging punishable as an offence under IPC separately. This is the crying need of the hour also.

Just recently we read in ‘The Times Of India’ newspaper dated March 24, 2022 that Uttarakhand High Court Committee confirms ragging of medical students. A two member Committee constituted by the Uttarakhand High Court comprising Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilesh Anand Bharne and Kumaon Commissioner Deepak Rawat to investigate the alleged ragging of 27 MBBS students at the Government Medical College in Haldwani presented its report and confirmed that the allegations of the petitioner of ragging were true. A viral video had shown the students with their hands tied behind their back looking on the ground while walking in silence. They were seen wearing lab coats and masks along with shaved heads. They avoided all eye contact with passersby and vehicles on the road. The outraged netizens asked the college administration to take action against senior students responsible for the humiliation of their juniors.

While citing the Times Of India report of March 6, a petition was filed by Haridwar resident Sachidanand Dabral which said that:
The brutal, barbaric Taliban-type ragging will have a far-reaching effect not only on the minds of the students but also on their hearts and souls. The Court had then formed a Committee to investigate into the matter. The Committee’s report said that the college did not have any CCTV cameras installed on its premises to keep a check on the students.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra and Justice RC Khulbe of Uttarakhand High Court had ordered the medical college management to install CCTV cameras on its campus and get the faulty ones repaired. The Court asked the Principal to substantiate the basis on which the case was registered and explain why the accused were unidentified which clearly shows that there is more to it than meets the eye. Why was it earlier wrongly said that the students ragged were suffering from dandruff, allergies and psoriasis? Why the medical college administration tried to white wash an incident of crime? This happens time and again yet ragging is not made punishable under IPC separately. The same must be done now promptly!

There are so many cases of ragging incidents which even made news headlines all over. One of the most pivotal cases of ragging in India had occurred in 1996, in which 19-year-old Pon Navarasu’s dismembered body was found around different parts of Tamil Nadu. Navarasu was studying at Rajah Muthiah Medical College, Annamalia University in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. He was allegedly ragged by a senior, John David, who began physically assaulting him when he refused to strip and lick his footwear.

It was later revealed that David was known to be a bully at the college and went after Navarasu when he realized that the latter’s father was the former Vice Chancellor of Madras University. After interrogation, David confessed to the crime and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He was released in 2001 after a Madras High Court acquitted him, only to be put behind bars in 2011 when the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s decision.

Similarly Aman Satya Kachroo was only 19-years-old when four seniors ragged him to death at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Himachal Pradesh in 2009. The young medical student suffered head injuries which he later succumbed to. Kachroo had, just a day before his unfortunate death, filed a complaint against the accused for ragging him. What is even more baffling in Aman’s case is that inspite of giving a written complaint to the College Principal about having been subjected to ragging on March 6 and 7, no timely action was taken which could have saved his life. Of what use are Governments and the legal machinery if they cannot provide adequate security to students?

On the night of 31 March, 2009 in Indore, a horrific incident of ragging came to the fore in the prestigious institution of Devi Ahilya Bai University’s International Institute for Professional Studies in Indore where Yadvendra Singh Solanki who was a student of MBA second year complained to the University administration that five students coerced him to remove his clothes and did obscene acts much against his wishes. Most disgraceful! What is happening in our country? Why is our Government not taking immediate action to amend IPC and make ragging punishable?

As if this is not enough, we saw how another shocking case of ragging came when in 2012, a 17-year-old aeronautical engineering student, Ajmal PM was set on fire by his seniors! The student was studying at an engineering college in Bangalore, where he was ragged by a group of four seniors who had failed and were in his class. As he went inside the common bathroom, Ajmal could smell thinner and soon enough, the room was set on fire. He suffered 60% burns on his body and passed away a few days after the incident.

Furthermore, in 2014, we saw how a pharmacy student from the Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology was found dead near railway tracks in Kolkata. Reports suggested that the 20-year-old was ragged and beaten up by his seniors in college. Reports claimed that Akash was bullied by the accused continuously during his time in the institute. In fact, others claimed that he was also stopped from taking a very crucial test by the five. His friends helped recognize five suspects who were suspended from the college.

In a recent case of ragging, a 15-year-old student of Delhi’s Delhi Public School Noida has been hospitalized after 17 seniors beat him up with sticks and metal rods. He was allegedly bullied by his seniors who asked him to strip and sit on the floor. While returning to the hostel after dinner, the student was assaulted by a couple of seniors who retaliated after he made a complaint to the school authorities.

The victim’s father has filed an FIR against the 17 students, naming at least 6 of them in the complaint. The school management apparently asked the father not to take legal action. This is what is most disgusting that the school management also does not want in most of the cases that those who are responsible for ragging are brought to book and strictest action is taken against them!

Of course, the increasing incidents of ragging are a rude reminder that till now no political party is really serious in taking concrete steps or at least in building sustained pressure on Government to come forward in taking a decisive step of making ragging a non-bailable and non-compoundable offence on par with rape as UGC had recommended a long time back. Rape victims are only girls but ragging covers both boys and girls which needs to be taken at least equally serious if not more in our society which so far has not been the case inspite of alarming increase in incidents of barbaric ragging and all political parties are maintaining a stoic silence on this most sensitive issue which is most unfortunate.

It will be no exaggeration to say that ragging has now become synonymous with ritualized form of brutal torture resulting in severe psychological and physical injury but is anyone really bothered about all this? It is a no-brainer that only this alone can truly explain as to why we are witnessing the recurrence of ragging incidents resulting in injuries, mental unbearable trauma, disableness, attempted suicides, suicides and even murder. This further strengthens the conviction that existing laws for ragging are wholly inadequate.

There can be no gainsaying that all the colleges and universities must paste anti-ragging posters on a wide scale to create awareness in the students about the ill effects of ragging as the UGC also recommended. It is worth noting that the UGC in its notification dated 29 June, 2016 lays down that:
No. F. 1-15-/2009 (ARC).—In exercise of powers conferred under clause (g) of sub-section (1) of section 26 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956), the University Grants Commission hereby makes the following regulations namely:

1. These regulations may be called Curbing the menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions (third amendment), Regulations, 2016.
2. They shall come into force on the date of their publications in the Official Gazette.

2. In UGC Regulations on Curbing the menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions, 2009 (herein-after referred to as the Principal regulations), in Para 3 the following shall be added after 3(i) under heading what constitutes Ragging.—

3(j). Any act of physical or mental abuse (including bullying and exclusion) targeted at another student (fresher or otherwise) on the ground of colour, race, religion, caste, ethnicity, gender (including transgender), sexual orientation, appearance, nationality, regional origins, linguistic identity, place of birth, place of residence or economic background.

It must also be mentioned that the UGC in its draft anti-ragging regulations call for treating ragging as a cognizable offence under the law on a par with rape and other atrocities against women and ill-treatment of persons belonging to SC/ST. Why should Centre also not specifically amend IPC and make it punishable separately as a very serious offence in line with the UGC draft anti-ragging regulations? Besides proposing punishments ranging from expulsion and debarring students from admission to any other institute, rustication from 1-4 semesters, admission cancellation, debarring from examinations, Rs 25,000 fine, withholding results, expulsion from hostel and collective punishment for all those found involved in ragging, the UGC has gone a step further asking institutes to ensure that no ragging is carried out even in private lodges where students are staying and these are registered with the local police.

Most significantly, the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and also the former International President of the Asia-Pacific Jurist Association Vijendra Jain has termed ragging in educational institutions as an affront to human dignity and called for amending the IPC to make it a cognizable offence. He also said that:
In other countries across the world, seniors interacted with juniors only to help them, but here they were acting like tormentors. The only way out to curb this practice was to deal with such cases sternly and award exemplary punishment to the guilty. A fool-proof mechanism must be worked out to provide ragging free environment in various institutions. As there is no specific Section in the IPC to deal with ragging so far, it should be suitably amended to provide one. It will be a better option than every State enacting its own law to deal with such cases.

All told, it is definitely most unfortunate that no government in Centre till now has shown the guts, gall and gumption to make ragging a cognizable and non-bailable offence under IPC so that the promising young students don’t become victims of ragging in the near future. But now this most pressing issue cannot be kept in cold storage any longer!

The educational institutions where ragging occurs must also be held fully accountable so that they also become more pro-active to save their own heads from rolling and leave no stone unturned to check it very seriously by promptly cracking down on those indulging in it!

The educational institutions also apart from those indulging in it should never be allowed to escape from their heavy responsibility of ensuring the welfare and safety of students because that makes them totally lackadaisical as we see right now as they are not themselves affected in any manner whatsoever and it is only the innocent freshers who easily are made the worst scapegoats and thus emerge as the worst sufferers in this whole process for no fault of theirs! This must definitely end now! Those guilty of ragging must be put behind bars for at least few years promptly without getting any bail so that they dare not again take anyone’s life for a pretty ride!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut - 250001