DUTA Letter to VC on Confusion about Roster, 11.1.2017

The Vice Chancellor,                                                                                                                 11.1.2017

Delhi University,

Delhi.

Dear Prof Tyagi,

There is tremendous confusion among Liaison Officers about which roster to implement, which has been compounded by the fact that there are no clear guidelines that have been issued by the University. As you may be aware, there is a conflict between the GoI Reservation Policy (as conveyed by the instructions given in Office Memoranda issued by DOPT)

 and the policy adopted by DU EC on 28.9.2013. The flaws in the latter were pointed out even by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, as a result of which you had set up a Monitoring Committee under Prof Kale.

On 31.12.2016, Delhi University had organised an “Interaction with Liaison Officers (SC/ST/OBC/PWD) of Colleges on preparation of reservation roster”. The meeting ended inconclusively as several Liaison Officers insisted that the Roster should be implemented from 2.7.1997 (the date of adoption by DU of SC/ST reservation in teaching posts) and not from Sept 2013, that DoPT guidelines should be followed and not the EC Resolution of Sept 2013 (as is being done by DU). Several Liaison Officers signed the following statement:

“On the Reservation Roster

We, the undersigned, wish to put the following on record:

High Court order says that all vacant posts have to be identified by 10th Jan and placed on Reservation Roster and then advertised immediately.

The order further states that the Principal and the Liaison Officer will be responsible for correct implementation of the roster.

DU has set up a Monitoring Committee chaired by Prof Kale in response to the observations by the Parliamentary Standing Committee that the DU Roster is faulty.

Problems with existing DU roster:

(i) Actual backlog has been ignored by not determining backlog from the dates of implementation of the post-based reservation roster for SC/ST (2.7.1997) and OBC (21.3.2007) respectively. The roster does not include teachers who have retired / resigned or left since 1997 but only includes those who were in service as on 3.9.2013.

(ii) Shortfall is frozen against specific posts to be filled in only after vacation of these posts by the current incumbent, as a result of which filling up of shortfall will be delayed inordinately.

(iii) Alphabetical arrangement of departments for the purpose of making the roster is discriminatory between departments and against academic and social diversity, because the density of reserved positions in the roster is not uniform. As a result, some departments get excessive reservation whereas others hardly have any. Vacant posts are being added immediately after filled posts in each department leading to variations in roster with variable workload.

Given the above, DU needs to correct its roster and bring it in consonance with DOPT Guidelines before advertising the posts ie before 10.1.2017.”

The confusion in this regard is persisting because some DU officials are insisting on following the flawed DU Roster given in the EC Resolution of 28.9.2013 even after its severe indictment by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

The EC needs to meet urgently and approve of the DOPT guidelines for determining number of reserved vacancies, so that appropriate instructions can be issued to colleges.   This has to be done urgently since the High Court order has set 10 January 2017 as the deadline for identifying all vacant posts and placing them on the Reservation Roster.

I am attaching DUTA’s note on the DOPT Roster along with a model to explain how it can be correctly implemented. This had been prepared after several workshops and consultation with experts.

With regards,

Nandita Narain(DUTA President)

Sandeep(DUTA Secretary)

DUTA Note on Roster implementation