Should universities have dept-wise faculty quota?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on Wednesday a group of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentarians and ministers from the scheduled caste and tribe to discuss issues affecting the two communities, including a University Grants Commission (UGC) directive on hiring teachers. UGC says its new reservation formula, issued on March 5, is in response to a direction of the Allahabad high court in April 2017.
Hearing a case on hiring teachers at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), the high court said that each department, rather than the entire university, should be treated as a “unit” to form a basis for reservation.
The court struck down the UGC’s institution-wise reservation policy to fill vacant faculty positions, saying there are departments without SC or ST teachers.
On the directions of the humanresourcedevelopment (HRD) ministry, a UGC-appointed committee examined 10courtjudgmentsonthesubject and recommended that AllahabadHCrulingshouldbe applied to all universities. Followingthis,theUGCissuedthe March directive.
THE SIGNIFICANCE
Experts say the March order will shrink seats for reserved groups. PS Krishnan, a former secretary at the Centre, explains that in case of a single vacancy in a college department, reservation won’t be possible. That’s why the government has this “formula of bunching similar posts with similar pay scales, qualifications,
The delegation led by Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramdas Athawale and Thawarchand Gehlot informed the Prime Minister that the UGC’s order for a department-wise roster of teacher vacancies reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates will affect the two communities’ representation in universities and colleges. The current norm is to have an institution-wise table for reserved vacancies.
NEWDELHI:
and so reservation became possible”, he says.
Department-wise quota will ensure equitable distribution of SC and ST candidates, it has been argued. But experts, teachers and parliamentarians don’t think so. The HRD ministry has decided to file a special leave petition the Supreme Court to get the HC order rescinded.