Amity University suicide case: Supreme Court seeks reply from varsity founder President

The Supreme Court on Monday directed Amity University’s founder President Ashok K Chauhan to file an affidavit detailing action taken on the alleged suicide of law student Sushant Rohilla.

A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit sought the action taken report from Chauhan after amicus curiae Fali S Nariman said that he should have informed the court what action he has taken or what action he has not taken.

Nariman submitted that being the head of the institution, he has to say something on the death of the student.

“He has to say something. It is his duty to tell the court what action he has taken. Let him make a report to the court. A boy has lost his life,” he said.

The bench agreed with the contention of the amicus and ordered Chauhan to file an affidavit on the action taken despite opposition from the Amity University.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the university, said that Amity Law School is affiliated to a government university Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Amity University, which is a deemed university, has nothing to do with the law school.

To this, the bench said that “we are not saying anything at present. Let him file the report” and adjourned the matter for further hearing.

On September 5 last year, the apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter written by a friend of Amity law student Rohilla, who allegedly committed suicide, saying it would examine whether there was an “element of suspicion” that the incident took place due to “harassment”.

It had also appointed senior advocate and jurist Nariman as the amicus curiae to assist it in the alleged suicide case and said it may consider laying down some guidelines.

The PIL was instituted after taking note of the letter written to then CJI T S Thakur by one Raghav Sharma, a close friend of the deceased and a 4^th-year law student.

It has been claimed that 20-year-old Rohilla, who could not attend classes for quite some time due reasons including his physical health, was depressed over the prospect of not being allowed to take the examination by the college because of lack of attendance.

The letter has blamed the Amity authorities for Rohilla’s suicide on August 10 at his residence.