Must be 'mistake': JNU Vice Chancellor on UGC de-reservation draft guidelines

By Vishu Adhana
New Delhi [India], January 30 : Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice Chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Tuesday opposed the University Grants Commission (UGC) draft Guidelines for Implementation of Reservation Policy in Higher Education Institutes and said that it must be a "mistake."
She emphasised that there are enough Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates for reserved faculty positions in universities.
This comes after UGC suggested de-reserving faculty positions, meant for SC, ST and OBC aspirants if sufficient reserved candidates are unavailable.
Speaking to ANI, the vice chancellor asserted that JNU follows the government of India's policy for the recruitment of teachers and the "Modi government has not given any document on the reservation".
Recently, the University Grants Commission's draft on Reservation Policy in Higher Education caused furore as it suggests de-reserving faculty positions, meant for SC, ST and OBC aspirants if sufficient reserved candidates are unavailable.
"I dont think UGC has the power to make such changes... so I think this must have been a mistake, I don't know. But in JNU, we are very clear there was no de reservation of any post and let me also reiterate that in JNU, since I came in the last two years, the highest number of reserved category faculty have been recruited," she said.
"I would not agree with this saying that candidates are not available. I think the way to resolve that would be rather to either broaden the specialization for professorship, yes, we are not getting people in every category, including open category," she added.
The draft guidelines were released in the last week of December.
The guidelines said, "A vacancy reserved for SC or ST or OBC cannot be filled by a candidate other than an SC or ST or OBC candidate, as the case may be. However, a reserved vacancy may be declared unreserved by following the procedure of de-reservation where after, it can be filled as an unreserved vacancy."
The draft rules have not been withdrawn yet.
On Sunday, Santishree, in a written statement, said, "As vice chancellor, of 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."
Her statement highlighted that the Supreme Court had expressed the same sentiment.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry and the UGC have clarified that centrally funded universities will not de-reserve any reserved faculty positions.
As of now, reserved faculty positions are not converted to recruit general candidates.
On Sunday, UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar posted on X, "This is to clarify that there has been no de-reservation 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 the reserved category are filled through concerted efforts."
Kumar also told ANI, "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."