The Supreme Court has directed the appointment of former Chief Statistician of India Dr T.C.A. Anant as Technical Consultant to the National Task Force for the purpose of comprehensive and scientific analysis of the survey data. The Apex Court had earlier directed the formation of the Task Force to suggest a model ‘Suicide Prevention and Postvention Protocol’ or a model ‘Student Well-being Protocol’.

The Division Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan ordered, “Dr. T.C.A. Anant, former Chief Statistician of India be appointed as Technical Consultant to the National Task Force for the purpose of comprehensive and scientific analysis of the survey data.”

The order emanates from the judgment passed on January 15, 2026, whereby the Supreme Court had asked the National Task Force to suggest a model ‘Universal Design Framework’ or a model ‘Student well-being Protocol’ which would cohesively incorporate the model SOPs, the existing guidelines on ragging, promotion of equity, sexual harassment, etc.

The Apex Court was considering an application seeking the appointment of Dr T.C.A. Anant, former Chief Statistician of India, as Technical Consultant to the National Task Force for a comprehensive and scientific analysis of the survey data.

The Bench has also asked the Ministry of Education, Union of India, to pass an order of appointment of Dr. T.C.A. Anant at the earliest.

“We also direct the Ministry of Education, Union of India to extend all necessary administrative support, more particularly the infrastructure & data access and to provide appropriate remuneration/honorarium to Dr. Anant in accordance with prevalent norms”, it ordered.

Cause Title: Amit Kumar v. Union of India & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2026 INSC 128)

Click here to read/download Order





Justice JB PardiwalaJustice R Mahadevan

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.