HC extends stay on NHRC proceedings in Nepalese student suicide case

Cuttack: Orissa high court on Tuesday extended till June 30 its stay order on all NHRC proceedings in the alleged suicide of a Nepalese student of KIIT deemed-to-be university on Feb 16.
On March 27, NHRC had held the institute accountable for the alleged suicide of the student and directed the Odisha chief secretary to submit an action taken report within four weeks.
NHRC had also directed the commissioner of police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, to submit an updated investigation report and the chairman of UGC to consider initiating requisite action against the institute.
KIIT and KISS filed a petition in HC challenging the NHRC order.
On April 7, the HC issued notice to the state govt to reply by April 26. "As an interim measure, it is directed that all further proceedings in the case, presently pending before the NHRC, shall remain until the next date of listing of this matter (April 29)," it said.
But when the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the state counsel sought more time to file a reply. Accordingly, Justice S K Panigrahi adjourned the matter to June 30 and extended the interim stay order.
In the April 7 interim order, the HC had also directed the state govt, district collector (Khurda), CP and UGC chairman "to refrain from taking any further steps or actions pursuant to the impugned NHRC order dated March 27, until the next date on which this matter is listed before this court".
In the petition, KIIT argued that though officials of NHRC undertook an inquiry and subsequently prepared a report, neither the report nor its findings were made available to the institute authorities prior to issuing the impugned order on March 27.
Such omission, it contended, constitutes a clear breach of the principles of natural justice and stands in violation of the statutory safeguards embodied under Section 16 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
On March 24, the Supreme Court had in the case of Amit Kumar vs Union of India also taken note of the KIIT incident along with certain other similar incidents in colleges across India. Therefore, NHRC ought to have shown some restraint before passing the order, it was argued on behalf of the institute, while seeking intervention against the March 27 order.
Taking serious view of suicidal deaths in educational institutes, the apex court had formed a national task force headed by former SC judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat to examine the issue.