Calcutta High Court On Other Students Being Shown In Media Coverage Of Alleged Gang-Rape At South Calcutta Law College; Seeks Answers From State, College
The Calcutta Excessive Court docket has directed the State and Faculty authorities to answer the allegations and points raised in a public curiosity petition regarding the alleged gang-rape of a regulation scholar inside South Calcutta Regulation Faculty, within the occasion the identical are reiterated in a recent petition to be filed by the petitioner.
A Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das De noticed, “We wish the response from the Faculty and the State Administration with regard to the allegations and points raised in paragraph 6 of this petition, within the occasion the stated allegations and/or points are additionally raised within the writ petition to be filed when it comes to this order by the adjourned date.”
Temporary Information
A public interest litigation was filed by an Advocate looking for a court-monitored CBI probe into the alleged gang-rape of a regulation scholar on the evening of June 25, 2025 inside South Calcutta Regulation Faculty. The petition described the incident as a mirrored image of systemic failure involving political coercion, lack of campus safety, and institutional indifference.
It alleged that the sufferer had been subjected to coercion by politically affiliated people and threatened with violence and false implication. Regardless of prior complaints, no preventive motion was allegedly taken by the faculty administration or the police.
The petition raised questions concerning unauthorised entry to the premises after hours, the absence of surveillance infrastructure, and the presence of workers on campus past official hours. It additionally alleged suppression of scholar protests within the aftermath and sought a court-monitored investigation, formation of a judicial fact-finding committee, a ban on ex-students’ after-hours entry to the campus, and the implementation of Inside Complaints Committees beneath the POSH Act and UGC Tips.
Reasoning of the Court docket
The Court docket famous that the PIL suffered from incurable defects and allowed the Petitioner to withdraw it. The Bench granted liberty to file a recent petition on the identical reason behind motion and directed that, if the identical points are raised, the State and Faculty shall reply.
The Court docket stated, “We wish the response from the Faculty and the State Administration with regard to the allegations and points raised in paragraph 6 of this petition, within the occasion the stated allegations and/or points are additionally raised within the writ petition to be filed when it comes to this order by the adjourned date.”
The Court docket additionally expressed concern over sure media visuals exhibiting feminine college students of the faculty, which can have led to mistaken identification. It famous, “It has been introduced to the eye of the Court docket that few lady college students of the identical Faculty have been proven in numerous channels and social media which is prone to create an impression that the feminine proven can be the sufferer whose id needs to be preserved and never disclosed beneath any circumstances. It demeans the modesty of the sufferer and the feminine who’ve been proven with a mistaken id.”
The Bench acknowledged that the State House Division might difficulty an advisory to all media homes, and acceptable complaints could also be lodged if such confusion arises via social media.
It was recorded that the sufferer is represented and is receiving mandatory help from the SIT. The Court docket directed that she be heard in each petitions
The matter stands adjourned to July 10, 2025.
Trigger Title: Souma Subhra Ray v. Union of India & Ors. (WPA (P) 238 of 2025)
Look:
Petitioner: Advocates Shamik Chatterjee, Aditya Bikram Mahata, Neelam Kumari
For Calcutta College: Advocates Nilotpal Chatterjee, Sourabh Sengupta
For State: Senior Advocate Kalyan Kr. Bandyopadhyay; Advocates Swapan Banerjee, Debanjan Mandal, Biswaroop Bhattacharya, Sandip Dasgupta, Sirsanya Bandyopadhyay, Debayan Sen, Mahima Cholera, Sumita Shaw, Arko Nag, Rahul Singh
For CBI: Particular Public Prosecutor Amajit De; Advocate Arka Bhattacharya
For Union of India: ASG Asok Kumar Chakraborti; Senior Advocate Kumar Jyoti Tewari; Advocate Arijit Majumdar
For Sufferer: Advocate-on-Document Yuvraj Chatterjee; Advocates Arindam Jana, Jhuma Sen, Sumanta Ganguly, Swastika Chatterjee, Rahul Surtari, Samsul Laskar, Pritish Bandyopadhyay, Shabbir Biswas
