A student's suicide in Delhi has uncorked a flood of complaints about student trauma

At the Amity Law School in Noida, the suicide of a student has galvanised a movement.

On Tuesday, close to a week after third-year student Sushant Rohilla killed himself on August 10 after he was barred from giving his semester exams, around 300 students held a protest at the institute’s campus. Students demanded the resignation of a professor and college director for alleged mental torture and harassment.

Twenty one-year-old Rohilla, whom family and friends described as a meritorious student with a strong extra-curricular record, was barred from appearing for his sixth-semester exams because of a shortage of attendance. The law school is affiliated to Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

Protesting Amity Law School students held the school administration responsible for the incident and alleged that many other students had faced similar pressure over attendance. The university has a minimum 75% attendance requirement.

Online campaign

News of Rohilla’s death created a storm online, as his classmates demanded justice for him and students from other institutions came forward with their experiences. Both Facebook and Twitter were flooded with posts demanding #JusticeforSushant.

Rohilla’s family, too, used social media as a platform to create awareness about the incident.

His sister Mehak posted on Facebook:

In a Facebook post, his uncle, lawyer Dinesh Rohilla claimed that the actions of the Amit Law School, amounted to "abetment of suicide".

Rohilla, the son of a senior government official, had left behind a suicide note in which, police officials said, he had apologised to his loved ones for taking the step but did not cite any reasons for it. His mother had found his body hanging from the ceiling fan in his room in South Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar.

His family and friends, however, are certain that the college’s decision to bar him from his exams was what prompted him to kill himself.

Rohilla, whose attendance was around 45%, had not been issued an admission card for exams that were held in May. His family and friends said the attendance shortfall was because he had injured his leg earlier and also owing to extra-curricular activities, for which he should have been given a concession.

His sister and uncle have circulated an email from Rohilla to the chairman of the Amity Group, pleading not to be debarred, in which he said:"...please do not debar me, it will hamper my life to unimaginable extent. Sir I plead you... Please help me sir, if I get debarred, I might not mentally survive this."

Arbitrary rules, claim students

Amity Law School issued condolences on the death of Rohilla, saying his death is "extremely sad" and a "great loss". But also claiming that the institute itself had absolutely no role in the matter.

It issued a statement saying:

“Sushant Rohilla – a 6th Semester student, had 45% attendance, which was conveyed to his parents many a times through mail. The attendance, as per the rules of IP University, was sent to IP, which has the sole discretion to issue Admit Cards to the students for sitting in examinations. The Law school officials had gone to meet the bereaved parents and pay condolence. The parents of the deceased have expressed that there is no fault of Amity Law School Delhi in this tragic incident.”

Rohilla’s classmates and friends, however, told the media that the college does allow students to give their exams despite low attendance and that the decision on whether or not to bar a student is often taken showing “partiality”.

In all, 19 students had been barred from appearing for their exams this year.

Students put out a list of demands for the administration and said that Rohilla’s was a case of harassment and mental torture. They have called for a committee to look into the arbitrary manner in which the institute applies its attendance norms.

"Technically, Sushant did not fulfill the criteria for attendance," said Angaj Gautam, a friend of Rohilla's. "But one should also see what went wrong. Sushant had a fracture on his right foot, for which he had to take rest. That period should have been exempted on medical grounds. On certain days, he even went to approach sponsors for a moot court competition and represented the institute at one such competition in Bhopal. He technically deserved attendance for all those days."

Nitish Thakur, a ninth-semester student playing an active role in the #JusticeforSushant campaign, said that students have been boycotting classes en masse since Tuesday, even as the institute has been calling up parents and asking them to help stop the protests.

“We demand the immediate resignation of a professor, who is also the examination in-charge, and the director of the university, in light of the complaints from several students citing instances of harassment and mental torture," Thakur said.

Students have created a Facebook page called ALSD Alumni Against Atrocities dedicated to documenting "gross misuse of power and condemnable behaviour" at the institute.

The Hindu reported that Amity Law School had asked two of its faculty members to go on leave and set up a six-member committee to look into Rohilla's death.

Many Twitter-users, including public figures, spoke about their unpleasant experiences with colleges and teachers.