Himachal passes tough ragging law
Shimla: Five months after a medical student, Aman Kachroo, was ragged to death at Tanda Medical College in Himachal Pradesh, the state assembly on Monday passed the Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Bill 2009 making ragging a cognisable offence.
According to the law, an offender can be expelled from the institution and would not be eligible for admission to any other institution for a period of three years.
The assembly rejected opposition Congress members demand for referring the bill to a select committee. Senior Congress leader Thakur Kaul Singh had demanded deleting a clause that barred a student found indulging in ragging from taking admission to any educational institution in the state. Such a clause could run contrary to the right to education, which has been made a fundamental right, said Kaul Singh.
Another Congress member Sukhwinder Singh Sukku moved an amendment to the effect that the proposed law was punitive rather than reformative and could be misused. He said student politics was an organised activity in colleges and universities and there was every likelihood that this law could be misused to penalise a student on the grounds of ragging.