The Union Ministry of Education confirmed that there is no de -reservation of reserved category positions in Central Education Institutions (CEI) going to happen.
Previously in 2006, the University Grants Commission (UGC) formulated a Guidelines for implementation of reservation policy in recruitment and admission in universities and colleges across the country. In this case, UGC decided to revise that policy and formed a special committee to formulate a new reservation policy. The report draft of that committee was published on 27 December 2023.
Draft suggested de-reservation of vacancies
The draft suggested the provisions to remove the existing system of reservation and insisted on a new method in which the unfilled seats of SC,ST,OBC category can be converted to open category. That is, if suitable candidates are not available to fill the seats reserved for categories including SC,ST,OBC, then those seats can be transferred to general category and filled with suitable candidates. The Union Education Ministry is vested with the power to approve the revised reservation of these vacancies. If the recommendation of this draft report of UGC is accepted, this practice will be implemented in all types of higher education institutions.
criticism against de-reservation
UGC also gave a period of one month for the public to express their views and suggestions on this matter. As the one month duration ended the day before yesterday (27 January), the idea of de- reservation creates more controversy. Many political leaders and academics strongly oppose this. The students union of Delhi JNU had announced a protest against the UGC chairman. Congress opposed this and accused the Modi government of not caring about SC,ST,OBC social development and it will open the door to end reservation for SC,ST,OBC in higher education institutions.
No de-reservation
Meanwhile, The Ministry of Education has clarified on its X page that no vacancy reserved for SC, ST, OBC category can be transferred to general category and all the vacancies will definitely be filled up as per the 2019 rules. Similarly, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar has also given an explanation about this on his X page that even in the past, the reserved vacancies were not transferred to the general category and that will not happen again.
