Topic 14 of 20
GS Paper 4 Institutional Duty of Care Academic discipline, due process and an institution's responsibility towards a vulnerable student

When the Rulebook Is the Kindness: Due Process and Duty of Care After a Student's Death at IIT Bombay

Source The Hindu, Indian Express, ThePrint, Times of India, India Today, Economic Times

Can an institution follow its rules and still fail its student? At IIT Bombay, some faculty members are asking a harder question: whether the rules were followed at all. The death of a second-year student has turned an examination-hall incident into a test of what a premier institution owes the young people in its charge.

| | Topic 14 of 20

Summary

Sahil Wakode, a second-year B.Tech student at IIT Bombay and a Dalit, died by suicide on September 18, 2026. Hours earlier he had been accused of using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination. The institute issued a public statement naming him in the alleged malpractice and has since apologised twice for it.

On his parents' complaint alleging caste discrimination, Mumbai Police registered an FIR against Professor Suryanarayana Doolla under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and his deanship was suspended. The institute's faculty forum expressed solidarity with the professor, while other faculty members, including Professor Suryakant Waghmore, questioned whether due process was followed.

They cite two alleged lapses: no fresh answer sheet was given and the departmental disciplinary committee was not convened as the rules require. NCSC chairperson Kishor Makwana conducted a spot inquiry on September 24 and the student's parents began a hunger strike in Mumbai.

IIT Bombay has set up a committee with equal student and faculty representation to draft student-friendly procedures, including letting accused students speak to a mentor before a disciplinary hearing.

WHY IN NEWS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS

On September 24, 2026, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairperson visited IIT Bombay for a spot inquiry into Sahil Wakode's death. His parents began a hunger strike at Azad Maidan and sections of the faculty publicly questioned whether the institute had followed its own procedures in the alleged malpractice case.

Standard News

Procedure Is Not the Opposite of Care: It Is How an Institution Cares

The easy framing. When a student dies after being accused of misconduct, public debate splits into two easy camps.

  • One says rules must be enforced; cheating cannot be excused because the outcome was tragic.
  • The other says rules were cruel; institutions should have shown compassion instead. Both camps assume that due process and care are opposites. At IIT Bombay, the facts emerging suggest they are not.

What was allegedly missing The alleged lapses. Sections of the faculty, speaking to The Hindu, have raised two questions about how the institute handled the alleged malpractice by second-year student Sahil Wakode:

  • He was not given a fresh answer sheet after being caught, which they say is the rule.
  • The Departmental Academic Disciplinary Action Committee was not convened as required. The public statement. Separately, the institute issued a public statement naming the student in the allegation. It has since apologised for that statement twice. What these procedures are for. None of these allegations has been established and they must be treated as questions, not findings. But notice what each procedure does.
  • A fresh answer sheet lets an accused student finish the examination instead of being ended at the moment of accusation.
  • A committee ensures that an accusation is tested by more than one person before consequences follow.
  • Confidentiality protects a student's dignity while the facts are still unknown. Each rule is a form of care written into the process. If they were skipped, the problem was not too much procedure. It was too little.

The dilemma an honest official faces Put yourself in the invigilator's place or the dean's. Academic integrity matters: every other student in that hall is owed a fair examination.

Letting an alleged violation pass would wrong them. But the student in front of you is nineteen or twenty, possibly frightened and - as Dalit students in elite institutions have repeatedly testified, from the Thorat Committee's findings in 2007 onward - may already feel he does not fully belong.

Moving fast and publicly, to show that the rules are strict, risks crushing him. Moving slowly and privately, with support, risks looking lenient. The resolution. Integrity and care point the same way when procedure is followed in full:

  • complete the examination; - convene the committee; - let the student speak to a mentor first; - keep the matter confidential until it is decided. IIT Bombay's new committee, with equal student and faculty representation, is now discussing exactly these steps. What this costs. Discipline becomes slower and less visible and some genuine cheating may be dealt with more gently than before. That is a real price and it is worth paying. The accused professor. The FIR against the professor is an allegation under investigation and he is entitled to the same due process the student was owed.
Fair procedure is not a bureaucratic delay between an accusation and a penalty; it is the institution's way of treating a person as more than the accusation against them. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to Tele-MANAS, the national mental health helpline, at 14416.

Quick Facts

Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first

  • Student: Sahil Wakode, second-year B.Tech, IIT Bombay.

  • Date of death: September 18, 2026.

  • FIR: registered by Mumbai Police against Prof.

  • Suryanarayana Doolla under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, on the parents' complaint; the professor's deanship has been suspended.

  • IIT Bombay has apologised twice for its statement naming the student in the alleged malpractice.

  • Alleged procedural lapses raised by faculty: no fresh answer sheet given; departmental disciplinary committee not convened.

  • NCSC chairperson Kishor Makwana conducted a spot inquiry on September 24, 2026.

  • The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is a constitutional body under Article 338.

  • The new IIT Bombay committee has equal student and faculty representation to frame SOPs on academic misconduct.

  • Remaining mid-semester examinations have been postponed to October 10 and 11.

  • The Thorat Committee (2007) examined discrimination against SC/ST students in higher education.

Beyond The Headlines
GS Paper 4 Academic discipline, due process and an institution's responsibility towards a vulnerable student

Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.

Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:

1

The full dilemma from the invigilator's and dean's positions - the concrete cost to the student, to other examinees and to the institution under each choice

2

How deontology, care ethics and constitutional morality apply to this specific case and why they converge on complete procedure rather than speed

3

The broader pattern from the Thorat Committee (2007) to recent campus deaths and what it says about marginalised students in elite institutions

4

A reform blueprint: mentor-first hearings, confidentiality rules, representative committees and independent grievance channels

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Duty of Care Due Process Procedural Justice IIT Bombay Academic Integrity Student Mental Health Caste Discrimination NCSC Article 338 SC ST Prevention of Atrocities Act Thorat Committee Higher Education Ethics GS4 Ethics UPSC Mains

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