AG refuses to appear for State unis cited as respondents over ragging incident

The Attorney General (AG) has refused to appear for any of the 16 State universities cited as respondents in a fundamental rights petition filed in the Supreme Court (SC) over a ragging incident.

The SC had ordered all 16 State universities to submit comprehensive reports on ragging incidents that had been reported in their universities over the past three years as well as measures they had taken to prevent them. Senior State Counsel (SSC) Dr Avanthi Perera though, informed court that the AG’s Department would not be submitting these reports to court as the AG will not be representing these universities. She said the AG’s Department will inform the universities to hire outside counsel and submit the reports through them.

Dr Perera said the AG will only be representing the Inspector General of Police, the University Grants Commission and the Minister of Higher Education during the hearing into the petition.

Several counsel who represented some of the universities then asked court to allow their clients more time to submit their reports.

The petition had been filed by Harshana De Silva, who was a first year student at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He had alleged in his petition that his fundamental rights had been violated during a ragging incident in 2020 where senior students had thrown a tyre onto him, resulting in him suffering serious injuries from which he is yet to recover.

Shavindra Fernando, PC, who appeared for the petitioner, told the three-judge bench comprising Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Shiran Gooneratne and Priyantha Fernando that his client is not seeking any monetary compensation. He said the petitioner is asking that a set of guidelines be introduced to prevent such unfortunate incidents from occurring at universities in future.

Taking matters into consideration, the court ordered the universities to submit their reports by November 10.