The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Union of India, the Delhi government, the Delhi Police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on the alleged suicide committed by two Dalit students at IIT-Delhi.
The Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra passed the order on Friday on a petition challenging the Delhi High Court order of January 2024 that refused to lodge a criminal complaint into the matter.
While refusing to register a first information report (FIR) in the case, the High Court had urged the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to make conscious efforts to counsel young students that scoring good marks was not the most important thing.
The petitioners, including the kin of the deceased, claimed that the Dalit students were facing caste-based discrimination by the faculty/staff at IIT Delhi.
The petitioners further alleged that the faculty members were trying to save the real accused behind the incident.
They claimed that the police were not investigating the matter in a proper manner. Acting in connivance with the administration of IIT Delhi, the police officials had deliberately used delay tactics to systematically destroy all the evidence in the case, added the plea.
The petitioners sought registration of an FIR in the case, along with directions for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the matter.
The Delhi Police told the High Court that both the deceased students were failing in multiple subjects, and that it was most likely that they took their own lives because they were unable to withstand the pressure to perform better.
The High Court then proceeded to dismiss the plea, stating that the allegations levelled by the petitioners could not be corroborated.
The petitioners were represented by Advocates Mehmood Pracha, RHA Sikander and Jatin Bhatt before the Apex Court.