Supreme Court issues notice in plea for CBI probe into Dalit student suicides at IIT-Delhi

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice in an appeal against a Delhi High Court order that refused to lodge a criminal complaint into the suicide deaths of two Dalit students at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra sought the response of the Central and Delhi governments, the Delhi Police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and IIT-Delhi in the matter.

In January, the Delhi High Court had refused to register a first information report (FIR) in the case.

However, the High Court had urged the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to make conscious efforts to counsel young students that scoring good marks is not the most important thing.

The parents of the deceased claimed that their children were facing caste-based discrimination by the faculty/staff at IIT Delhi. They also alleged that the faculty members are trying to save the real accused persons and police officials are not investigating the matter in a proper manner.

They claimed that police officials are acting in connivance with the administration of IIT Delhi, and have deliberately used delay tactics to systematically destroy all the evidence in the case.

The petitioners, thus, sought registration of a first information report (FIR) in the case, and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

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.

Advocates Mehmood Pracha, RHA Sikander and Jatin Bhatt appeared for the petitioners (kin of the deceased) before the apex court.