Kerala High Court Orally Observes 1998 State Law Inadequate To Curb Menace Of Ragging, Expresses Need To Formulate Rules

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday (March 5) orally observed that rules need to be framed under Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998 to effectively tackle the menace of ragging. The High Court orally noted that the State only had a brief legislation of 9 sections to address the issue. It observed that since the passing of the legislation, UGC has come up with detailed guidelines to curb ragging in colleges and the State might need to look into the need of introducing changes into the existing law. The Court further observed orally that there were no mechanism for prevention in the State legislation.The Court said that State can consider constituting a working group from different disciplines and can invite suggestions from public for the purpose of formulating Rules. The Court added that the working group should also look into whether the existing State legislation needs to be amended. Advocate Parvathi A. Menon appearing on behalf of KeLSA submitted that the High Court in its judgment in Berin P. Varghese v State of Kerala (2008) had noted that the offences in the Act are non-cognizable and bailable and highlighted the need to strengthen the provisions.The Court asked the State to provide information as to whether District Anti-Ragging Committees and State Level Monitoring Cell as contemplated under UGC Regulation is constituted in the State with details about the role and their activities. The Court said that if the committees have not been constituted yet, the State has to provide a timeline within which it will be constituted. The Court said that if the timeline fixed by the State is not satisfactory, it will itself set the timeline. The Court also directed the State to get information from the universities whether committees are set up at institute level as contemplated under the UGC Regulations.The special comprising of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice C. Jayachandran was considering a petition filed by Kerala Legal Service Authorities (KeLSA) to curb the menace of raging in the State. The Court looked into the existing provisions to curb ragging namely the 1998 Act and the UGC Regulation on Curbing the Mrnace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions.The Court noted that ragging in these both statutes is defined in wider terms ranging from spoken words to violence/ brutality. The Court noted that once there is violence, the issue becomes the concern of the State.“Once there is brutality and violence in ragging, it does not remain the concern of individual student or the institution but has the effect of shocking the conscience of the society. Therefore, the State has major role in ensuring that there is a robust prevention mechanism.”The case is next posted on 19th March.Case Title: Kerala State Legal Service Authority v Government of Kerala and OthersCase No: WP(C) 8600/ 2025Click Here To Read/ Download Order

Kerala High Court Orally Observes 1998 State Law Inadequate To Curb Menace Of Ragging, Expresses Need To Formulate Rules

Manju Elsa Isac

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