The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over recent suicides by an IIT Kharagpur student and a NEET aspirant in Kota, Rajasthan, and sought to know whether FIRs were registered in connection with the incidents. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan directed the court registry to obtain reports from both locations at the earliest.
The bench took note of the suicide of Mohammad Asif Qamar, a 22-year-old civil engineering student at IIT Kharagpur, who was found hanging in his hostel room at Madan Mohan Malaviya Hall on May 4. The deceased, a native of Sheohar district in Bihar, was reportedly on a video call with a friend in Delhi just before his death.
“This is one of those unfortunate suicides by a student for which we have constituted the task force to work on the various issues relating to student suicides,” the court observed. It asked whether the institute’s administration had registered an FIR in line with previous court directions.
The bench also referred to another case involving a minor NEET aspirant from Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh, who allegedly died by suicide in Kota’s Parshavanath area ahead of the NEET-UG examination scheduled for May 11. The court said the girl had been preparing for the exam at a local coaching institute and was living with her parents.
Noting that this marked the 14th coaching student suicide in Kota in 2025 alone, the court cited disturbing statistics—17 such deaths were reported from the city last year. It asked whether an FIR had been registered in this case as well.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on May 13.
The apex court had earlier, on March 24, taken cognisance of the suicides of two SC/ST students at IIT Delhi and directed Delhi Police to register an FIR and initiate a probe. It had also ordered the formation of a National Task Force (NTF) led by former Supreme Court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat to address student mental health and prevent suicides in higher education institutions.
Calling it “high time” to address this crisis, the court had directed the Centre to deposit ₹20 lakh to fund the initial operations of the NTF. The bench underscored the urgent need for a comprehensive and responsive mechanism to tackle the various pressures that push students towards suicide.
“These tragedies underscore a disturbing pattern and call for urgent, robust action,” the bench remarked.
