India, July 21 -- The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of student suicides at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur (West Bengal) and Greater Noida's Sharda University, observing that "something is wrong". It sought responses from the two institutes on whether the cases were promptly brought to the police's notice for the registration of criminal cases.

A 24-year-old Bachelor of Dental Surgery student at the Sharda University died by suicide last week, leaving a note that led to the arrest of two faculty members. The court noted that the suicide at IIT Kharagpur was the fourth such case in seven months and wondered what was happening at the institute.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan sought t...