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With respect I agree with whatever the learned Judge had observed in the above passage.

21. In my view, ragging is a barbarous practice and it should be totally banned. If anybody is found guilty of ragging, he shall be immediately expelled from the Institution and he shall he debarred from entering any other educational institution thereafter. The origin of ragging is not clearly known. It had its birth only in foreign shores. According to Shorter Oxford English Dictonary, the word is a University slang. 'An act of ragging' means especially an extensive display of noisy disorderly conduct, carried on in defiance of authority or discipline. The word "rag" as a verb is also defined as follows :--

"a. To scold, rate, talk severely to.

b. To annoy, tease, torment; spec. in Univ. slang, to assail in a rough or noisy fashion; to create wild disorder in (a room)."

In Webster's New 20th Century Dictionary it is stated that from 19th century it is a British University slang. A guess is made in the Dictionary that it had its origin probably from the phrase like a red rag to a bull; its derivative being bully rag etc. 21.1 Ragging was totally unknown in this country. It is not known how, when and who imported it into this country. It has been in vogue if at all for the past few decades. Before that it was not heard of. But, it has become a wide-spread virulent disease prevalent in all educational institutions and more in Professional colleges and hostels. It causes deep sorrow and anguish that in a country which had very lofty University ideals expounded in the Vedas, this shameful and disgusting evil of ragging degenerating into bestiality should come to stay in educational innstitutions, which are intended for imparting knowledge to the future rulers of this country. Tait-tiriyopanishad describes the rules to be observed by a good student. He prays to the Supreme Being to give him able and active body, sweet tongue and make him listen abundently through his ears and learn.

(Matter in vernacular omitted) "Purity of conduct sowelh the seed of prosperity; but an evil course is the mother of endless ill."

How can anyone conceive of more ennobling thoughts and better ideals than that prevailed in our ancient Universities? But alas! what a fall from that high peak of virtuous principles to the murky depths of a dirty mire named 'ragging'. Any person with a little sense of decency would abhor even to think of indulging in it.

22. Having come to the educational institution to learn and pave the way for a bright future, it is unfortunate that students should commit unnatural offences and satiate their sadist instincts in the name of ragging. There seems to be a misapprehension among some sections of the students and even teachers that ragging is a way of training the new entrants to the institution to face the difficulties in life later. There cannot be a more absurd view than that. In several cases, the students get mental shock and depression by ragging and there are instances of the victims of ragging committing suicide. Even assuming without admitting that some of the victims of ragging will be bold enough to face difficulties in life later, end cannot justify the means. The sooner the ragging is abolished by an appropriate legislation, the better.

23. An occasion arose in the State of Himachal Pradesh when the High Court gave certain directions to the Chief Secretary to the State Government. A complaint was received by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh from the guardian of a student of the Medical College in Shimla about the ragging of freshers by senior students. Along with the complaint, a letter received from his son was also enclosed. The two letters were treated as writ petitions by the Chief Justice and a Division Bench of the High Court presided over by the Chief Justice considered the matter. Notices were issued to the State Government, the Principal of the Medical College, the Himachal Pradesh University and the Pirector of Health Services and they were arrayed as respondents. On the materials placed before it, the Division Bench came to the conclusion that the practice of ragging was prevailing in the Medical College, Shimla on a noticeable scale and that ragging look the form of subjecting freshers including female students to inhuman and humiliating treatment degenerating even into physical violence and that the college authorities were not able to effectively control the same. The Division Bench gave various directions including a direction to the State Government to constitute a Committee consisting of the Vice-Chancellor of the University and the Secretary to the Government, Health Department, inter alia, to make recommendations in regard to the curative, preventive and punitive measures to be adopted by the college authorities to control and curb the evil of ragging and the machinery to be set up to enforce those measures. A Committee was appointed and it submitted its report to the High Court containing various recommendations. The Division Bench gave directions for implementing the various recommendations made in the report and with regard to one of the recommendations, the Division Bench directed the Chief Secretary to the State Government to file an affidavit within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the writ setting out the action proposed to be taken on that recommendation. The recommendation was that the Himachal Pradesh Government should initiate a legislation making ragging a congniz-able offence and prescribing punishment commensurate with the crime. It was that direction which was challenged in the Supreme Court by the State Government in State of Himachal Pradesh v. Student's Parent, Medical College, Shimla, . The Supreme Court held that the Court had no power to compel the State Government to initiate legislation or to pass an enactment, While upholding all the other directions given by the Division Bench, the Supreme Court vacated the direction to the State Government to initiate a legislation making ragging a cognizable offence.