Justice N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court on Tuesday abhorred the practice of glorifying suicides committed by students due to their inability to clear competitive examinations such as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and accused the political parties of doing nothing but shedding tears after such suicides were reported.
Contempt application
He made the oral observations during the hearing of a contempt of court application filed against top officials of the Centre as well as the State government for allegedly failing to comply with the orders passed by the court on August 24 with respect to steps that could be taken by the governments to prevent student suicides due to failure in exams.
In its order, the court observed that it was the duty of the government to give counselling to children as well as their parents and that it could rope in prominent personalities to advise the children through the media not to take any wrong decision just because they could not clear one competitive examination or another.
“This alone is the need of the hour. This court appeals to educationalists and cinema personalities to give advice to the affected students to overcome the frustration and to motivate them. The political leaders are also expected to counsel the affected students, and it would have a soothing effect,” the court said.
Alleging that the order had not been complied with, advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam had moved the contempt application to punish Higher Education Secretary Sunil Paliwal, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan, Director of Medical Education G. Hariharan, DME selection committee secretary Edwin Joe and secretary to the Medical Council of India Reena Nayyar.
‘Presumption wrong’
During the course of the hearing, Additional Advocate General C. Manishankar told the court that the contempt application had been moved on the wrong presumption that the government had done nothing.
He said the government had done everything within its powers to equip the students in the State to face NEET and the orders of the court had been complied with fully.
Observing that the government alone could not be cornered for not having prevented student suicides, the judge said that it was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders including the parents, politicians, non-governmental organisations and others to ensure that the students do not resort to the extreme decision of taking their own lives.
After ordering notice, returnable by June 27, on the contempt of court application, the judge suggested that the State government avail the assistance of suicide prevention organisations, such as Sneha Foundation India, to counsel the school students.