SC issues notice to Centre, IITs on reservation in admission, recruitment of faculty

New Delhi [India], November 24 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on a plea seeking direction to follow the reservation policies in admission in research degree programmes and recruitment of faculty members.
A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, B R Gavai and BV Nagarathna sought response from the Centre and all IITs on the plea alleging the institutes are not following the reservation policies.
The plea was filed by Sachichida Nand Pandey who also sought directions for cancellation of the appointment of non-performing faculty due to violation of reservation norms, formation of transparent recruitment policy.
It further asked for the creation of a mechanism for resolving the students/scholars and research harassment complaints and to constitute a committee of technical experts to review the performance of existing faculty.
The process of taking admissions in the research programme and appointment of faculty members by the IITs are completely unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary, stated the plea.
The plea also said that IITs are not following the guidelines of reservation as per the constitutional mandate, it added.
The IITs are also not following the transparent process of recruiting the faculty members which opens up the window for non-deserving candidates to enter IITs through connections that increase the chances of corruption, favouritism and discrimination, affecting the internal ranking and technological growth of the country, the plea alleged.