University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar announced on Sunday evening that the draft provision allowing “de-reservation” of faculty vacancies meant for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes in Central universities will not be included in the final guidelines. This was stated just hours after the provision drew harsh criticism from the academic community and activists across the nation.
It was suggested that in the event that there are insufficient candidates from the SC, ST, and OBC categories, the post designated for them may be deemed unreserved.
Mr. Kumar stated that it was merely a “final draft” and that after reviewing the comments from the general public, it would be updated. “There is nothing like de-reservation and there will not be any de-reservation. The entire draft guidelines are meant for feedback, After that, there will always be corrections in the guidelines and then the final guidelines will come. As far as de-reservation is concerned, that will not be part of final guidelines,” he told press persons.
The government released the Final Draft Guidelines for public comment on December 27 and gave people until January 28 to provide their input.
Amid the controversy, the UGC posted a statement from Mr. Kumar on X, which said, “This is to clarify that there has been no de-reservation of reserved category positions in Central Educational Institutions (CEI) in the past and there is going to be no such de-reservation. It is important for all HEIs to ensure that all backlog positions in reserved category are filled up through concerted efforts.”
Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree Pandit also clarified that no such de-reservation had ever taken place at the university. She added that the university was “proud of implementing the Constitutional guarantees under the Reservation policy as stipulated by MoE, GoI”.
The Education Ministry, in a statement on X, said, “Reservation in Central Educational Institutions (CEI) is provided for all posts in direct recruitment in Teacher’s cadre as per the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019. After enactment of this Act, no reserved post is to be de-reserved. Ministry of Education has given directives to all the CEIs to fill up the vacancies strictly as per the 2019 ACT.”
Following the publication of media reports on Sunday morning that emphasised the de-reservation provision found in Chapter X of the Final Draft Guidelines, a number of educators—including former UGC Chairperson Sukhdeo Thorat—stated that the UGC lacked the legal authority to discuss the matter at all.
