Rajasthan High Court: In a suo motu writ petition initiated by the Court in 2016 in response to an alarming rise in student suicides in Kota, Rajasthan, a city known as the coaching hub of India, a Division Bench of Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, CJ., and Mukesh Rajpurohit, J., while expressing deep concern over the continued loss of student lives, chose to defer issuing further directions in light of the Supreme Court’s ongoing proceedings and the respondents’ intention to seek a transfer.
The Court had, over the years, passed various interim directions aimed at addressing the systemic issues plaguing the coaching ecosystem and to mitigate the psychological pressure on students. Despite the pendency of the petition for nearly a decade, no comprehensive legislation had yet been enacted. The Court was informed on 07-05-2025 that a Bill addressing the matter was under discussion and had been referred to a Select Committee.
The Amicus Curiae submitted that despite the passage of time and continued judicial intervention, the situation remains grim with “about 14 deaths” having occurred in 2025 alone. He urged the Court to direct interim enforcement of Central Government guidelines. The Advocate General confirmed filing of additional affidavits providing statistical and documentary evidence of student suicides in Kota and elsewhere in Rajasthan.
The respondents, operating a coaching institute in Kota, opposed the prayer for enforcement of guidelines. They argued that the Supreme Court had “recently taken cognizance on the issue of suicides being committed in educational institutions/coaching institutes including suicides having taken place at Kota” and that the case is listed before the Supreme Court on 23-05-2025.
The respondents further submitted that an application was being contemplated to transfer the suo motu PIL for analogous hearing before the Supreme Court, and requested the High Court to “stay its hands” and not proceed further in the matter.
The Court expressed deep concern over the continuing deaths and stated that “we also find that in the year 2025 itself, about 14 suicides have taken place. This is a matter of serious concern for us.” The Court acknowledged that it had been actively issuing directions over the years to tackle the “sorry state of affairs” but noted with dismay that no formal legislative solution had yet been enacted.
While inclined to issue directions for implementation of the Central Government’s guidelines given the “gravity of the situation,” the Court decided to defer passing further orders in light of the Supreme Court’s ongoing proceedings and the respondents’ intention to seek a transfer.
“We are however inclined to defer passing further orders in the matter in view of what has been stated by learned counsel for the respondents… that the matter would again be coming up for consideration on 23.05.2025… and further taking into consideration that the Counsel state that they seek to apply to the Hon’ble Supreme Court for transfer of this case also.”
The Court directed to listed the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
[Suo Moto v. State of Rajasthan, D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 99/2016, Decided on 14-05-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Sudhir Gupta, Senior Advocate (Amicus Curiae) assisted by Ms. Shweta Chauhan, Counsel for the Petitioners
Mr. Rajendra Prasad, Advocate General assisted by Mr. Sheetanshu Sharma, Ms. Dhriti Laddha & Mr. Tanay Goyal; Mr. R.D. Rastogi, ASG assisted by Mr. Devesh Yadav & Mr. Yatharth Asopa; Mr. Mukul Rohtagi, Senior Advocate through VC and Mr. Paras Kuhad, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Sanjeevi Seshadri, Mr. Akshay Agarwal, Mr. Manish Sharma & Mr. Prakash Jha; Mr. Sajid Ali and Mr. Vishwas Saini on behalf of Mr. M.S. Raghav and Ms. Sakshi Agarwal on behalf of Mr. Vagish Kumar Singh, Counsel for the Respondents