Important Legal Information

The tryst with the criminal justice system is often either ignored or taken lightly by students. They nurture an illusion that owing to their “student status” they might easily delude the authorities and obtain lenient sentences.

However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has adopted a “zero tolerance” stance against ragging. It has defined ragging as “any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which has the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any junior student, indulging in rowdy or undisciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the student(s) to do any act or perform something which the student will not do in an ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student.”

The above definition is wide enough to cover even milder forms of ragging. Hence, it would be self-deceptive to believe that milder forms of ragging involving introductions with singing, dancing, proposing, etc. is acceptable. Even milder forms of ragging have the potential of generating a sense of shame or embarrassment in some students.

Some examples of different forms of ragging, among others, hit by the above-stated definition are as follows:

Verbal and psychological abuse:

It is defined as a conversation between the senior and fresher, without the consent of the latter, where the senior humiliates the fresher, forces him to answer questions which may be socially or personally unacceptable, abuses/teases/humiliates him/her, thereby portraying his/her superiority and leading to mental stress, uneasiness, or discomfort to the fresher.

Physical abuse:

It is defined as an act by a senior toward the junior without the latter’s consent with the intention of causing physical injury to the fresher. Some examples are:

  • Beating the fresher
  • Pointing objects at the fresher with the knowledge that it may cause injury or causing actual injuries
  • Making the fresher to slap him/herself if he doesn’t do an act properly
  • Making the fresher drink or eat something, which he wouldn’t otherwise do
  • Take rounds if the college ground.

Sexual abuse:

It is defined as an act by a senior, asking the junior to do something which may damage the sexual dignity of the junior. It simply means, doing an act of sexual nature with the junior or asking the junior to perform any such act in the presence of the perpetrator. Some examples are:

  • Strip down to bare essentials or even worse
  • Have unnatural sex
  • Masturbate in public
  • Touching of private parts; etc.
The above list of examples is not exhaustive.