House Panel meet on higher education Bill cancelled as govt focuses on clearing women quota and delimitation draft law

Taking a dig at the Narendra Modi government following the development, Congress’s communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh said, “Just two days before the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins, two JPCs on very controversial Bills — one of which requires Constitutional amendments and the other of which is a clear case Constitutional over-reach — have put off adopting their reports. The humiliation suffered by the Modi Govt in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026 clearly has cast a long shadow that persists inspite of the Union Home Minister’s bluff, brag, and bluster.”

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose, who is on the 31-member committee, termed the development “a big win for the Opposition”. In a post on X, Ghose said, “Unprecedented. Was looking through the parliamentary record and could not find any instances of any other Bills which after reaching the ‘Clause by Clause’ deliberation stage were then placed on the back burner as has happened with two Bills now… The NDA coalition is creaking. Ally trouble for Shri Narendra Modi & Shri Amit Shah. No wonder the desperate search for ‘rebel’ MPs.”

Earlier, the Joint Committee meeting scheduled for Friday (July 17) was also deferred as the TDP-ruled Andhra Pradesh government had raised objections to some clauses in the proposed legislation.

The 31-member committee is chaired by BJP MP D Purandareswari. Sources said the Madhya Pradesh government had also raised concerns over some of the clauses in the Bill.

The VBSA Bill seeks to form a higher education commission merging the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

The Opposition had objected to the proposal, calling it an “excessive centralisation of higher education”.

Members of the Congress and the DMK, besides several universities, have objected to certain provisions in the Bill which they say grants the Centre sweeping powers to override policy disagreements with state governments and undermines the autonomy of the state institutions and universities.

With the Opposition as well as some allies in the NDA expressing strong reservations against the proposed Bill, the Central government is not keen to push it without bringing multiple stakeholders on board, sources said.

“The government wants to keep the contentious Bills on hold for the time being as it is keen to gather support and numbers for the smooth clearance of the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill for implementing the women’s reservation law and the delimitation Bill. Its priority is the Bills which were defeated in the April session,” said a senior BJP MP.

Party leaders said securing a two-thirds majority for the women’s quota law and delimitation Bill is the “top priority” for the government; it does not want to push contentious issues and upset the regional and smaller parties.

On Friday, the Joint Committee of Parliament examining the 130th Constitution Amendment bill, also expected to adopt its final report, deferred the move apparently to hold wider consultations on the contentious clauses. Its chairperson, BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, is learnt to have agreed to get the Opposition on board for adopting the report unanimously.

The Opposition, which had boycotted the House panel meeting, vehemently opposed the Bill saying its provisions are undemocratic, anti-federal and contradict the bedrock principle of natural justice by punishing public representatives purely based on custody rather than conviction.

The BJP has been in discussions with non-Congress Opposition parties, including the DMK and the NCP(SP), to manage the required majority for passing the women quota law and delimitation Bill.

Since the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha in the April session, 37 Lok Sabha and  Rajya Sabha MPs from different Opposition parties have defected to the BJP – making it the largest floor-crossing from the Opposition to the Treasury side in Parliament since the enactment of the anti-defection law in 1985.

With three vacancies, the present strength of the Lok Sabha is 540, including two MPs who are in jail, making the two-thirds mark 360. In April, 528 MPs had voted and the two-thirds mark was 352. The government had secured the support of 298 MPs, and the Opposition bagged 230 votes.

The NDA had 293 MPs in the Lok Sabha then. Now, after the split in the Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT), its tally has gone up to 319. If the NCP(SP) supports the Bill, the NDA tally will rise to 327, 33 short of the two-thirds mark. The BJP is hoping to bridge the gap with support from more parties and abstentions by some members.