Madras High Court reprimanded political parties and media houses on Monday for glorifying and publicising the deaths of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) candidates by suicide.

The court made the observation in response to an urgent mention about the suicides by advocate AP Suryaprakasam, and his request to initiate contempt proceedings against the Tamil Nadu government for failing to stop the deaths.

“If they stop such ‘nonsense’ and stop giving solatium to victims’ families such a trend would decrease,” the court said.

Suryaprakasam told the court that four students had died by suicide this year because the government had failed to comply with its order from 2017. The court had said in that order that it was the duty of the government to provide counselling to students, their parents and teachers.

Justice N Kirubakaran said that the media and political parties were to blame for the student deaths. “They [the political parties] line up before the victims’ families to give solatium,” he said. “This suggests that whoever commits such suicide would get the money.”

The judge added: “If this [coverage] is stopped by the media and political parties and no publicity is given for such incidents, it may stop.” He also advised Suryaprakasam to file a contempt of court petition against the state government.

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