Govt plans an ordinance on institute-wide reservations

That order mandates department-specific reservations on the grounds that there are entire departments without a single SC/ST professor.

However, because universities have many departments with just one professor, and the reservation will not apply to this, the impact of the court’s order is the exact opposite of what it wanted to achieve.

If implemented, it would have meant a fall in the number of SC/ST faculty.

The ordinance is also meant to allow universities to continue hiring teachers; recruitment has been frozen since July 19 after the Supreme Court said no faculty would be hired till it ruled on the HRD ministry’s petition.

A second government official who asked not to be identified said the freeze has led to a staff crunch at many central universities.

The president promulgates ordinances or executive orders on the Union cabinet’s recommendation when Parliament is not in session for legislative processes. An ordinance needs Parliament approval within six weeks after it meets next.

The push for the ordinance came from the Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar.

“We are hopeful, we will be able to save reservation for SC, ST and OBCS (Other Backward Classes),” he told Rajya Sabha on July 19.

The first official said the HRD ministry had conducted an empirical study at universities like the Banaras Hindu University before filing the petition.

The study found the number of vacancies for SC/ST had gone down drastically due to the implementation of the new rule.

“The matter was taken up with the Supreme Court but as the court has not heard it yet, it led to stalling of all recruitment process. It has been decided to bring in an ordinance that prescribes institution as a unit for implementing reservation in faculty recruitment,” said the first official. This basically means a return to the policy in practice before the Allahabad court’s rul- ing.

The ordinance tentatively titled ‘Direct Recruitment of Teachers in Central Institutions Ordinance” will be sent for the president’s assent after the cabinet approves the proposal.

PS Krishnan, a former secretary in the central government, said: “It is a welcome move and is fully justified. I have also advised the Governments that if they do not get relief on the SLP in a reasonable time, they should proceed with legislation to restore the procedure of taking the university/college /other educational institution as the unit for implementation of reservation.this procedure helps progress in achieving the Constitutional objective of securing Equality through reservation in faculty positions.”