Calcutta High Court orders Jadavpur University to ensure student safety during Saraswati Puja

The Calcutta High Court directed that it shall be the duty of the local police station to provide necessary help to the university. (Image enhanced using AI)

Observations and directions

• The university prays for 10 days time to file progress report as
  directed by this court on December 4, 2025.
• In absence of opposition, the prayer is allowed.
• At this stage, it is pointed out that the university/registrar may be directed to ensure that during Saraswati Puja, no untoward incidents should take place.
• The university submits that it shall endeavour that no such incidents take place and all necessary
  arrangements shall be made for that purpose.
• To maintain law and order, the university may seek assistance from the local police station.
• It shall be the duty of the local police station to provide necessary help to the university.

Background

• The matter arose out of separate petitions filed by Sudip Raha and Subham Das, both raising concerns over campus safety and institutional accountability at Jadavpur University.
• The PILs were moved after a first-year student allegedly lost his life in 2023 due to ragging, triggering widespread outrage and sustained scrutiny of the university’s mechanisms to prevent such incidents.

Submissions

• Senior advocate Ritzu Ghosal, appearing for Jadavpur University, sought ten days’ time to file a progress report in terms of an earlier direction issued by the high court on December 4, 2025.
• The bench allowed the request in the absence of any opposition.
• At this stage, attention was drawn to the upcoming Saraswati Puja celebrations on campus, with a request that the university be specifically directed to prevent any disturbance or law-and-order issue during the festival.

Next date

• The high court directed that the PILs be listed for further hearing on February 3, 2026.
• The university is expected to place its progress report on record, detailing steps taken in compliance with earlier directions aimed at improving campus safety and preventing ragging.

Ragging menace in University

In March 2025, Jadavpur University had initiated an inquiry hours after a fresh complaint of ragging was reported.

The complaint alleged that senior students “severely harassed” a second-year postgraduate student of film studies inside the university’s main hostel for over five hours.

The student formally lodged complaints with the VC, Registrar, and the university’s anti-ragging committee.

He alleged that the harassment began on March 15 when he visited a room in the A1 block of the hostel to meet a friend.

He accused a group of seniors of surrounding him and launching a barrage of verbal abuse, before escalating to serious threats, including rape threats directed at his mother.

He further claimed he was coerced into posting “incriminating” statements on social media.

The father of a 17-year-old JU student who died in 2023 expressed his outrage and disappointment at the fresh allegations.

The 17-year-old student had fallen to his death after he was “disrobed, bullied and abused with homosexual slurs”, a police investigation had shown.

The Kolkata Police had arrested 12 accused in the case- six of them students at the university and the others former students who had continued to occupy the hostels.