Govt committed to reservation in faculty positions, says Javadekar

NEWDELHI: Union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday the government was committed to 50% reservation for SC/ST and OBC candidates in university faculty positions.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Zero Hour, Javadekar said the Centre “does not agree” with the Allahabad high court ruling that had in last year’s April struck down a circular prescribing institution-wise reservation to fill vacant faculty positions

“We are hopeful we will be able to save reservation for SC, ST and OBCs. Reservation is a Constitutional right... we stand by reservation and are committed to provide it to SC/ST and OBCs,” he said adding the government and University Grants Commission (UGC) has filed separate Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) against the order and the next date of hearing is on August 13.

The UGC on Thursday asked all universities to postpone the teacher recruitment process till the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the SLPs.

The commission announced in March that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of reserved slot for SC/ST and OBC candidates following the Allahabad high court order in April last year, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.

“A number of universities and colleges are going ahead with the appointments and are calculating the vacancies on the basis of departments which may affect the representation of SC/ST candidates. As the matter is due for hearing, we are asking them to postpone the process,” a senior ministry official said.

A university is treated as a single unit for calculating the number of faculty from reserved categories. For instance, during the listing of all teaching posts of the same grade, all departments are clubbed together to decide the quota. But under the new rule, each department in a varsity was to be treated as a unit but experts had pointed out that the move would reduce the number of posts for SC/ST candidates.