CMC Vellore ragging case: Madras High Court records safety measures deployed by college, closes suo motu case

The Madras High Court on Tuesday closed the suo motu proceedings it had initiated against Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore earlier this month following an incident of a first-year medical student being ragged, beaten up, and tortured by his seniors. .A Bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar closed the proceedings after taking on record an action taken and status report by the college authorities..Appearing for CMC, Senior Advocate Krishna Srinivasan told the Court that following the incident, ten students had been placed under suspension.He also said that the college authorities had introduced a series of safety measures on campus to ensure that such incidents were never repeated."Now there is also the fear of law and fear of God in the minds of the students," Srinivasan told the Bench..In its status report, CMC authorities told the Court that they had increased the number of CCTV cameras installed across the college campus. The report also said that full-time wardens had been appointed, and security personnel were deployed to take rounds of the college campus 24x7 to prevent any untoward incidents.The college authorities also submitted that the anti-ragging squad members were henceforth required to inspect the college and hostel premises through the day and make entries in a register detailing the time and duration of their inspection rounds.An external monitoring committee consisting of members of civil society from outside the college had been constituted to conduct periodic inspections at the college and hostel premises, it was submitted..The Court said that it was "satisfied" with the steps taken by the CMC administration, and hence, agreed to dispose of the suo motu petition."We didn't even know about the incident. Some of our brother judges came to know about it and asked us to see what was happening. They told us that the principal bench must do something. That is how we took up the matter," Justice Raja said while closing the proceedings..The Bench had taken suo motu cognisance of news reports on the November 6 ragging incident at CMC Vellore and asked the college to submit a status report on the incident.At an earlier hearing this month, the Bench had queried,"If it had happened somewhere in the interiors, we would not have taken suo motu cognisance. But CMC is a premier college. If you and I don't take appropriate action, tomorrow one will say 'when it happened at CMC nothing happened.' Will a young student want to come study in your college now? What are you going to do now? How will you ensure that the quality of education is not impacted?".[CMC Vellore ragging case] Will a young student want to study in your college now? Madras High Court