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Kochi: The high court has directed state govt to notify the Anti-Ragging and Student Welfare Guidelines, 2026, within two weeks, which mandate that the head of the institution hand over ragging complaints to the police within 24 hours and suspend the accused students upon receipt of the complaints. A bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice C Jayachandran issued the directive while considering a PIL filed by Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) seeking effective measures to eradicate ragging and adjourned the matter to Dec 2. The 2026 guidelines stipulate an anti-ragging committee, an anti-ragging squad, a wellness clinic or counselling cell with a psychologist, and a task force in every educational institution. The 2026 guidelines, which mandate confidentiality of the identities of ragging victims, also stipulate that if the head of an educational institution fails to act on a complaint, or hides or attempts to hide the complaint, they will be treated as having abetted the ragging offence and may be punished upon conviction. During Tuesday’s hearing, KeLSA objected to a clause that merely reproduces Section 4 of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998, while omitting the proposed enhanced punishment and fine.
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If the management, teaching or non-teaching staff, or any other person in authority bullies or harasses students, including through discrimination based on caste, creed, religion or language, they will be treated as having committed an offence and proceeded against under the guidelines or other applicable law, the guidelines said. It also pointed out that the ambiguous phrase “within, or without, any educational institution”, which had earlier been flagged to the director of prosecutions, had been retained and suggested replacing it with “within or outside any educational institution”. The state, however, agreed to modify the phrase to “within or outside”.
Similarly, universities must set up anti-ragging monitoring cells, while the state will have a Kerala state anti-ragging monitoring cell or anti-ragging commission. The guidelines further mandate a one-month quarantine period for seniors at the commencement of an academic year. Collecting the contact details of freshers, including their phone numbers and email IDs, during this period will be treated as an attempt to commit ragging. The head of the institution shall submit a fortnightly report on ragging issues on campus for the first three months of an academic year and thereafter submit a monthly report to the state-level cell. Body shaming, teasing and abuse of freshers also come under the purview of the guidelines, which categorically state that such activities in public and private modes of transportation and at places where transportation is awaited would also constitute an offence. The guidelines further stipulate that a student convicted of ragging shall be dismissed and shall not be admitted to any other educational institution for three years. KeLSA further urged govt to separately consider a legislative amendment to make ragging a cognizable and non-bailable offence. Download the TOI App.
The state govt had placed the proposed guidelines before the bench after it was urged to implement the draft guidelines as a temporary measure until the final amended Act comes into force.