Anti-Ragging Laws or Policies in India

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• The Supreme Court of India on Ragging
• The UGC Guidelines to Prevent Ragging
• Laws to Prevent Ragging in India
• Way Ahead

Why in News?

• An 18-year-old undergraduate student died after falling from the 2nd floor of his hostel in the Jadavpur University campus in Kolkata last week.
• As the family of the student has alleged that he was being ragged on campus, the article highlights how the Indian laws/ policies deal with ragging.

The Supreme Court of India on Ragging:

• Meaning: The Court in a 2001 (Vishwa Jagriti Mission) case, defined ragging as:
  • Any disorderly conduct (by words spoken or written or by an act), which has the effect of causing annoyance, hardship or psychological harm/ shame or embarrassment in a fresher or a junior student, adversely affecting their physique or psyche.
• The cause of indulging in ragging: To derive sadistic pleasure (by inflicting pain) or showing off power, authority or superiority by the seniors over their juniors or freshers.
• What the SC said? It termed ragging as the “menace pervading the educational institutions of the country.”
• Key guidelines on anti-ragging:
  • Setting up proctoral committees to prevent ragging and internally address complaints against ragging.
  • If the ragging becomes unmanageable or amounts to a cognisable offence the same may be reported to the police.

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The UGC Guidelines to Prevent Ragging:

• In 2009, the SC in another case dealt with the ragging issue appointed a committee headed by former CBI Director RK Raghavan.
• The recommendations of the committee were subsequently formalised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the form of detailed guidelines for universities on anti-ragging.
• The guidelines [The Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions] include 9 explanations of what could constitute ragging:
  • Teasing, treating or handling a fellow student with rudeness;
  • Causing physical or psychological harm;
  • Causing or generating a sense of shame;
  • Academic activity of any other student or a fresher;
  • Exploiting a fresher or any other student for completing academic tasks assigned to an Individual or a group of students;
  • Financial extortion or forceful expenditure;
  • Homosexual assaults, stripping, forcing obscene and
  • Lewd acts, gestures, causing bodily harm.
• At an institutional level, the UGC requires universities to declare its intent publicly to prevent ragging and requires students to sign an undertaking that they will not engage in ragging activities.
• The institution shall set up appropriate committees, including the course-incharge, student advisor, Wardens and some senior students as its members, to actively monitor, promote and regulate healthy interaction between the freshers and seniors.
• If found guilty by the anti-ragging committee, the UGC guidelines require any member of the committee to “proceed to file a First Information Report (FIR), within 24 hours of receipt of such information.

Laws to Prevent Ragging in India:

• While ragging is not a specific offence, it could be penalised under several other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
• For example, the offence of wrongful restraint is criminalised under Section 339 of the IPC which is punished with simple imprisonment up to 1 month, or with fine up to Rs 500, or with both.
  • Wrongful restraint is an offence when a person is prevented from proceeding in any direction in which that person has a right to proceed.
• Section 340 criminalises wrongful confinement which is defined as wrongfully restraining any person in such a manner as to prevent that person from proceedings beyond certain circumscribing limits.
• Several states have special laws for anti-ragging. For example,
  • The Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act 1998 provides for suspension or dismissal of the student accused of ragging and mandatorily requires the college administration to inform the nearest police station.
  • If an educational institution fails to do so, it would be “deemed abetment” to commit the offence.

Way Ahead:

• Fixing the accountability of authorities.
• Add more teeth to anti-ragging laws at the central and state levels.
• Conducting regular campus checks and awareness building exercises (among freshers regarding safeguards available) at the campuses especially during the first few months of the beginning of a new session.

Q1) What will be the new name of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)?

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill 2023 will repeal and replace the more than 160-year-old Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Q2) What is the University Grants Commission (UGC)?

UGC is a statutory body under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India. It was set up in accordance with the UGC Act 1956 and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education in India.

Source: Jadavpur University student death: What the law says about ragging