The Kerala High Court has directed the state government to notify the Anti-Ragging and Student Welfare Guidelines 2026 within two weeks, introducing mandatory police reporting within 24 hours, suspension of accused students and monitoring mechanisms across educational institutions.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice C Jayachandran issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA), which sought effective measures to eradicate ragging. The court adjourned the matter to December 2.
The state government had placed the proposed guidelines before the bench after being urged to implement them as a temporary measure until the final amended legislation comes into force. Under the proposed framework, every educational institution must establish an anti-ragging committee, an anti-ragging squad, a wellness clinic or counselling cell with a psychologist, and a task force.
The guidelines also require universities to create anti-ragging monitoring cells. At the state level, Kerala will have a state anti-ragging monitoring cell or an anti-ragging commission. The head of each institution must hand over a ragging complaint to the police within 24 hours of receiving it and suspend the accused students.
Institutions will also be required to submit fortnightly reports on ragging-related issues during the first three months of an academic year. After that period, the head of the institution must submit monthly reports to the state-level monitoring cell.
The proposed rules introduce a one-month quarantine period for senior students at the beginning of every academic year. During this period, collecting contact details of freshers, including phone numbers and email addresses, will be treated as an attempt to commit ragging.
The definition of ragging under the guidelines includes body shaming, teasing and abuse of freshers. Such conduct in public and private modes of transportation, as well as at places where transport is awaited, will also constitute an offence.
A student convicted of ragging will be dismissed and barred from admission to any other educational institution for three years. The guidelines also require confidentiality regarding the identities of ragging victims.
The framework proposes accountability for institutional authorities. If the head of an educational institution fails to act on a complaint, or hides or attempts to hide it, the official will be treated as having abetted the ragging offence and may be punished upon conviction. Management, teaching and non-teaching staff, and other persons in authority who bully or harass students, including through discrimination based on caste, creed, religion or language, will also be treated as having committed an offence under the guidelines or other applicable law.
During Tuesday’s hearing, KeLSA objected to a clause that reproduced Section 4 of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998, without including the proposed enhanced punishment and fine. It also flagged the phrase “within, or without, any educational institution” as ambiguous and suggested replacing it with “within or outside any educational institution”. The state agreed to make that modification.
KeLSA further urged the government to separately consider a legislative amendment to make ragging a cognizable and non-bailable offence. The government is required to notify the guidelines within the two-week period directed by the court, with the matter scheduled to be considered again on December 2.
