Nainital:The Uttarakhand High Court has sought responses from the Central government, the state government, and the National Medical Commission (NMC) on the steps being taken to prevent ragging in higher educational institutions, including professional and medical colleges across the state. Hearing a public interest litigation on the issue, a division bench questioned the state government on whether any specific legislation was being framed to curb ragging. The court made the observations after the state informed that no recent incidents of ragging had been reported from any college or medical institution in Uttarakhand. According to a recent PTI report, the Uttarakhand High Court has directed the Centre, the state government and the National Medical Commission (NMC) to file affidavits on the issue of preventing ragging in higher educational institutions. The division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Subhash Upadhyay also asked the Uttarakhand government whether any law is being enacted to preventragging. The state government informed the court stated that there have been no recent reports of ragging in any college. The petitioner’s lawyer, however, alleged that false affidavits were being filed to mislead the court. Also Read:MKCG Medical College MBBS student alleges ragging, NMC seeks report The court directed the petitioner to file a reply affidavit. The division bench has fixed November 17 for the next hearing of the case, adds PTI During previous hearings, the high court directed the government to form district monitoring committees headed by district magistrates and establish an anti-raggingcell in every university. Issuing several guidelines to prevent ragging in higher educational institutions, the court had emphasised that it was the responsibility of the head of each institution to ensure their compliance It had also stated that if ragging occurs in any institution, the head of that institution would be held responsible. Also Read:MGM Indore ragging complaint withdrawn citing 'mutual understanding'