Panel backs law for SC, ST, OBC quota in private varsity admissions

“Education must be a key instrument of attaining social justice in this country, and the current absence of reservations in private higher education institutions may be an impediment to the same,” the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports headed by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh noted in its report presented in the House on Wednesday.

Citing “substantial” annual fees in private universities, the panel underlined the need for the State to take steps through legislation to accommodate students from these categories.

Article 15(5) of the Constitution empowers the State to include private aided and unaided institutions of higher education in the scheme of reservations, it stated, adding that private institutions are currently not legally obliged to implement reservation policies.

The committee called for implementing Article 15(5) in full across the country through legislation by Parliament, to match the reservation with the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act of 2006 applicable on centrally-funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, and central universities.

“…in the interest of fairness, any introduction of reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs in private HEIs must be fully covered financially by the Government,” the committee noted, recommending a model similar to reimbursements provided to private schools by the government for 25% reservation.

The panel recommended that the governments should allocate dedicated funds for private HEIs to increase seats, build infrastructure, and hire faculty in institutions implementing reservations, ensuring that there is no reduction in general category seats.

The Department of Higher Education of the Union Ministry of Education told the committee that it is the responsibility of the state governments to make suitable legislative provisions for providing reservation in higher education institutions established by them, since private universities are established by Acts of state legislatures.

The department referred to All India Survey of Higher Education data for 2022-23 which shows that students in the SC category comprise 15.5% (67.87 lakh students) of the total student enrolment in government and private higher education institutions (4.38 crore), while this figure is 6.4% (28.25 lakh students) for ST category students, and 38.9% (1.7 crore students) for OBC category students.

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