Judicial commission to probe Dalit scholar's suicide

The union human resource development ministry on Friday decided to set up a judicial commission to probe the circumstances which led to the suicide of Dalit research scholar of the Hyderabad University.

The commission will submit its report in three months.

The ministry took this decision based on the findings and observations of a fact-finding committee constituted to conduct an inquiry. The two panels submitted their reports to the ministry.

"Based on its observations and findings, the ministry decided to constitute a judicial commission to review the entire sequence of events and the circumstances; and to establish the facts and correctives in the context of the university," an official statement said.

"The commission will submit its report within three months," it added.

Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani on Friday also spoke to the mother of Rohith Vemula over phone and extended her condolences.

The ministry, according to the statement, also took a few other decisions to address the issues faced by the students from disadvantaged social, economic and educational backgrounds in higher educational institutions comprehensively and to prevent such unfortunate incidents in future.

A programme will be launched for sensitising academic administrators about understanding and handling problems faced by socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged students.

All wardens, administrative staff and registrars would be compulsorily put through this orientation programme and a special module will be prepared for this.

A special mechanism would be set up at the ministry for receiving the grievances from these students and taking expeditious action on them.