Don’t glorify NEET suicides, Madras high court tells media and political parties

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Monday observed that media and political parties must stop glorifying NEET suicides.
“If they stop such 'nonsense' and stop giving solatium to victims’ families such a trend would decrease,” the court added.
A division bench headed by Justice N Kirubakaran made the observation when advocate A P Suryaprakasam made an urgent mention before the court to initiate suo motu contempt of court proceeding against the Tamil Nadu government for failing to prevent such suicides.
“In 2018, the court directed the state government to take appropriate steps to prevent NEET-related suicides. But the state has failed to implement the order in letter and spirit which led to four more suicides this year,” Suryaprakasam said.
Responding to the mention made, Justice Kirubakaran said the court could only blame the media and political parties which glorified such suicides. “They line up before the victim’s family to give solatium. This suggests that whoever commits such suicide would get money,” he said.
“If this is stopped by the media and the political parties and no publicity is given for such incidents, it might reduce,” the judge added.
The judge then said that the bench could not take suo motu contempt as the 2018 order was passed in a single sitting. Justice Kirubakaran suggested the advocate file a contempt petition if needed.