Caste Discrimination In Colleges : Supreme Court Seeks Data From UGC On Equal Opportunity Cells, Action On Complaints Received

In a PIL filed by the mothers of Rohit Vemula and Payal Tadvi assailing caste discrimination in higher educational institutions, the Supreme Court today called on the University Grants Commission to collate and furnish data from universities with regard to setting up of Equal Opportunity Cells and total number of complaints received under the UGC. In a PIL filed by the mothers of Rohit Vemula and Payal Tadvi assailing caste discrimination in higher educational institutions, the Supreme Court today called on the University Grants Commission to collate and furnish data from universities with regard to setting up of Equal Opportunity Cells and total number of complaints received under the UGC Regulations, 2012 alongwith action taken reports. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order, upon hearing Senior Advocate Indira Jaising and Advocate Disha Wadekar who stressed UGC's failure to implement the 2012 regulations and urged the court to seek data from the Union of India and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council - including data as to the number of suicides by students belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe category in HEIs. In 2019, Radhika Vemula and Abeda Salim Tadvi, mothers of the two Rohit Vemula and Payal Tadvi respectively filed the present PIL, seeking a mechanism to end caste-based discrimination in campuses.