India, March 24 -- The Supreme Court on Monday formed a task force to strengthen the mechanism for the protection of students on campuses after taking note of the increasing suicides in educational institutions.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan referred to deaths of students in college hostels due to sexual harassment, ragging, caste discrimination, etc over the last two months and said they were not isolated incidents. "We deem it necessary to discuss the pattern of students' suicide...What disturbs us even more is that...[they] are not isolated incidents..."

The court ordered the formation of the task force under former Supreme Court judge S Ravindra Bhat to submit a report in four months identifying the causes of stud...