New Delhi: Taking view of Delhi universities faculty members’ request – who have been resisting UGC’s new formula for calculating reservation in faculty recruitment, saying it will reduce the representation of SC/ST and OBC candidates – the government has decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.
“With a view to protect the interests of SC/ST and OBCs it has been decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court,” the government said in the Parliament on Monday.
A recent order by the apex court, which was in line with the Allahabad High Court order, was in favour of implementing the new roster system of reservation for teaching posts by treating department as a unit. Earlier, the universities were treated as a single unit, which increased the chances of representation of academicians from SC/ST/OBC backgrounds.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) circular, issued on March 5 last year, was in favour of department-wise recruitment for SC/ST/OBCs. The government filed a special leave petition (SLP) but it was rejected by the court. The government will now file a fresh review petition.
The question was raised in Parliament on Monday by Dr PK Biju representing Alathur constituency in Lok Sabha. The government’s response to his questions also brought to light the fact that “None of the seats advertised by the three Central Universities were reserved for SC/STs as per the revised department-wise roster.”
Question in Parliament
Directing his question to Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar, Biju about the number of faculty posts in universities that have been “advertised by various central universities after the issuance of the UGC circular on faculty positions in universities, department wise” after the new circular kicked in.
He also asked about the number of posts that are “reserved for the SCs and STs out of the total posts advertised,” and the number of posts that would have been reserved for SC/STs “if the earlier provision of the reservation had been followed.”
‘No Representation of SC/ST After New Circular’
After the UGC circular was issued in March, “only Central University of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Punjab had advertised for 65, 33 and 60 faculty,” the ministry said in response.
Responding to the question of department-wise faculty positions in universities, the HRD ministry said: “These universities have withheld recruitment process, as per the directives of UGC issued on July 19, 2018 in view of the SLP filed by the government against the order of High Court of Allahabad laying down that department only can be the unit of reservation.”
The startling fact that came to light was that “none of the seats advertised by the three central universities were reserved for SC/STs as per the revised department-wise roster.”
Citing the number of posts that would have been reserved for SC/STs as per the earlier provision of reservation provided, the ministry said in Tamil Nadu the SC seats would have been 12, STs would have been 8. In Punjab, SC seats would have been 13 and for ST seats would have been 10. There would have been no seats available in Rajasthan, it added.
The SC order was in line with the Allahabad High Court order. On January 22, the bench termed the high court judgment as “logical” and disapproved of bunching of posts in a university, based on similar qualifications, pay scales and status.
On April 7, 2017, the Allahabad High Court had allowed a plea which challenged an advertisement brought out by Banaras Hindu University (BHU), seeking to quash the clauses that assured reservation of SCs, STs and OBCs in teaching faculty. The court had ruled, “The respondent University will carry out the exercise of applying reservation to the posts under advertisement treating the department/subject as a unit for all levels of teachers rather than treating the university as a unit.”
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