NEET Aspirant Suicide in Rajasthan- SC seeks Action Report from State
New Delhi: Taking cognisance of the tragic incident of suicide of a NEET aspirant in Kota, Rajasthan, the Supreme Court recently sought a status report from the police in Rajasthan.
Apart from the suicide of the NEET aspirant, the Apex Court also asked for a status report from the police of the states of Delhi and West Bengal on the investigation into the suicides by students of IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, which made the Ministry of Home Affairs a party in the case, expressed concern over suicides in institutions of higher learning.
Amicus curiae senior advocate Aparna Bhatt had sought the ministry's assistance on the issue.
PTI has reported that the top court bench asked the Rajasthan Police to give the status of the investigation into the death of the NEET aspirant found hanging in her room in Kota, where she lived with her parents.
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Meanwhile, the bench also asked the Delhi Police to tell the status of the investigation in the FIRs it directed on March 24 on the complaints of the family members of two students who died by suicide in 2023 while studying in IIT-Delhi.
"We want to see what progress has been made in the investigation. We want to know what has been done by you after the FIR was registered. You must tell us what has been done," the bench told the counsel appearing for the Delhi government.
It also asked West Bengal Police to apprise about the investigation into the suicide by the IIT-Kharagpur student on May 4 leading to an FIR on May 8.
The top court bench posted the matter for further hearing on July 21.
On May 23, the top court grilled the Rajasthan government over the surge in student suicides in the city of Kota calling the situation "serious". It said 14 suicide cases had been reported from the city so far in 2025.
The top court referred to a March 24 verdict of the top court which took note of recurring cases of student suicides in higher educational institutions and formed a national task force (NTF) to address the mental health concerns of students and prevent such incidents.
The top court appointed former apex court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat as the chairperson of the NTF and said secretaries of a state's higher education departments, social justice and empowerment and legal affairs aside from the ministry of women and child development would be its ex-officio members.
The NTF, the apex court said, would prepare a comprehensive report that includes, identification of the predominant causes that lead to suicides by students, analysis of existing regulations and recommendations for strengthening protections.
The NTF was further tasked to conduct surprise inspections of any higher educational institution.
The apex court's verdict came on an appeal filed by the parents of two deceased students against a January 2024 order of the Delhi High Court which refused to order FIR over the suicides by the students.
It was alleged that both the students, who belonged to the scheduled castes, were murdered and they had earlier confided in their parents being subjected to caste discrimination.
Referring to 2023 data, the top court said 98 students died by suicide in higher educational institutes since 2018, out of which 39 were from IITs, 25 from NITs, 25 from central universities, four from IIMs, three from IISERs and two from IIITs.
Medical Dialogues has been reporting on the instances of suicide by NEET aspirants. Recently a 20-year-old student preparing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) - UG examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling in a private hostel located in the Surya Nagar area only three days after taking admission to a coaching institute in Sikar.
The reason behind his death is unclear and the matter is currently under investigation. The police have handed over his body to his family members after conducting a postmortem, which confirmed his death to be a suicide. However, no suicide note was recovered from the scene by police.
His death has taken the toll of such cases to 18 this year across the state, 16 of them in Kota and one each in Sikar and Jodhpur.
