Govt clarifies de-reservation policy after uproar over UGC draft guidelines

The chapter stated that while there is a “general ban on de-reservation of reserved vacancies in case of direct recruitment”, in exceptional circumstances it can be done if the university can provide adequate justification for it.

The draft guidelines specify that proposals for de-reservation concerning job positions designated for Group A and Group B posts should be submitted to the Education Ministry, while proposals for Group C and D posts should be forwarded to the Executive Council (the top decision making body) of the university for special permission. The proposal would have to provide information such as the designation, pay scale, name of the service, responsibilities, required qualifications, efforts made to fill the post, and why it cannot be allowed to remain vacant.

In current academic practice, reserved faculty positions are not converted to recruit general candidates. While the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) permits de-reservation in exceptional circumstances exclusively for Group A posts, according to sources, this provision has not been put into effect in universities. Unfilled quota positions undergo re-advertisement, and universities organise special recruitment drives until suitable candidates are identified, without opening these positions to the general category.

The draft UGC guidelines were seen to be paving the way for de-reservation in faculty positions in universities, which sparked an uproar.

“The constitutional provisions related to affirmative action are not mere words but expressions of a constitutional commitment … UGC seeks to topple whatever growth made in this direction since independence. The proposition to introduce de-reservation is a preposterous act in itself. The de-reservation provision will open a window of discrimination against reserved category candidates,” read a statement jointly signed by former president of Delhi University Teachers’ Association Aditya Narayan Misra and four members of the Delhi government’s OBC Commission.

On Sunday, UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar posted on X, “This is to clarify that there has been no dereservation of reserved category positions in Central Education 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 through concerted efforts.”

Reiterating that the proposal had nothing to do with de-reservation of any posts, Kumar told The Indian Express, “What is put out is just a draft and anything related to de-reservation will be taken out of it while making the final document.”

On why the chapter on de-reservation was included in the draft guidelines, a committee member, who did not wish to be identified, said, “The committee cannot bring in a new provision. We were just reiterating what is already permitted by the DoPT. The objective of bringing out a formal compendium of guidelines on implementing reservation in universities was to ensure there’s no confusion on this matter since there have been multiple circulars and several court judgments on it.”

Committee head H S Rana was unavailable for comment as he is recovering from a surgery.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University was the first to react. In a statement issued by the university, Vice-Chancellor Santishree Pandit said, “As VC JNU, I want to reiterate to all stakeholders that no posts in JNU have been de-reserved. We have got very good candidates under the reserved category. In the 54-year-old history of JNU, the highest number of reserved category faculty has been recruited during my tenure as VC and we are proud of implementing the Constitutional guarantees under the Reservation policy as stipulated by MoE, GOI…”

On what prompted JNU to issue a reaction, Pandit told The Indian Express, “There seemed to be some concerns in people’s minds following the news and we wanted to allay all concerns. There has been no direction from the ministry on any change in the reservation policy and at JNU we have had absolutely no trouble finding good candidates for reserved positions.”

“There are many candidates applying under the Assistant Professor posts. At JNU, we are getting at least 100-150 candidates for each reserved post. We are faithfully implementing the reservation policy which is a constitutional guarantee as passed by Parliament of this country,” Pandit said.