The Supreme Court on Thursday passed directions to the Centre and the states for prompt reporting of suicides by students in higher educational institutions.

The order came in the wake of rising incidents of suicides by students.

A bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan passed the directions as a sequel to its March 24, 2025, order that mandated universities and colleges to promptly lodge an FIR whenever a student dies by suicide and constituted a National Task Force (NTF) to identify the causes for the deaths, particularly in higher educational institutions like IITs and IIMs. The NTF is headed by former apex court judge, Justice Ravindra Bhat.

On Friday, the court directed Delhi police to register FIRs into the deaths of two Dalit students at IIT Delhi. While their institution had claimed they had died by suicide, their parents had alleged murder.

On the basis of the recommendations received from the Justice Bhat panel, the court passed the following directives on Thursday:

• The Sample Registration System data on suicides, especially by those falling within the age group of 15-29 years, must be centrally maintained for better and more accurate estimates of such deaths in higher educational institutions (HEIs)

• The National Crime Records Bureau must in its annual report distinguish between schoolgoing students and students pursuing higher education in its categorisation of “student suicides”

• All HEIs must report to the police the suicide or unnatural death of a student, regardless of the location of its occurrence (i.e. campus, hostels, PG accommodations, or outside the institution’s premises), as soon as they come to know about the incident. This should cover all students — irrespective of whether they are studying in the classroom, or in the distance or online modes

• An annual report of student suicides or unnatural deaths must be submitted to the UGC and all other relevant regulatory bodies for professional courses. In case of central universities and Institutes of National Importance, or any HEI that does not fall within the framework mentioned in the order, such deaths must be reported to the department of higher education, ministry of education

• Every residential HEI must have access to qualified medical help round the clock — if not on campus, then within a 1km radius — for students

• Keeping in mind the faculty shortages that have been reported in several HEIs, both public and private, it must be ensured that all vacant faculty positions (both teaching and non-teaching) are filled within a period of four months, with priority given to posts reserved for candidates from marginalised and underrepresented communities. Special recruitment drives may be conducted for hirings in reserved categories

• The appointment of vice-chancellor, registrars and other key institutional and administrative positions must also be made within a period of four months. It must be ensured that these positions are filled within a period of one month from the date on which the vacancy arises

• Pending scholarship disbursements must be cleared within a period of four months by the relevant central or state government authorities. Reasons must be cited to the HEIs in case of non-disbursal.

All HEIs have been strictly asked to remain fully compliant with all the regulations.