DUTA PRESS RELEASE: 30 April 2018

Speakers at the DUTA’S National Convention on ‘The Question of Representation in Higher Education’, unanimously responded to a crisis of social-justice caused by the 5th March 2018 Notification of the UGC instructing universities and colleges to reformulate the Reservation Roster for appointments by counting subject-wise departments (and not whole institutions) as units. The UGC Notification has hastily tried to implement a controversial Supreme Court Order on Reservations even as the Government, and the UGC itself, have sought a Review of the Order through a Special Leave Petition.

The Supreme Court Order has set aside the earlier practice of formulating a 200-point Roster based on institutions counted as one unit. Its recommendation of having a department-wise Roster will ensure that all academic departments that have a small numerical strength will end up not having adequate reserved posts. As a result, the Constitutionally-mandated reservation percentages of 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs will never be met in the departments and the institutions which they are part of. Due to this fallout, Sitaram Yechury (Gen Secy of CPI-M) termed this unfortunate Supreme Court Order “ultra-vires of the Constitution”.

Due to pressure exerted from various quarters and widespread protests against the Order, the Government has now filed a Review SLP in the Supreme Court. DUTA President Rajib Ray referred to the protests as “historic” in the people’s continuous struggles for social justice against institutionalised privilege and prejudice. 

The National Convention included prominent leaders like Udit Raj (BJP MP), Akhilesh Prasad Singh (Congress MP), former UGC Chairman Prof. Sukhdeo Thorat, Kavita Krishnan (Politburo, CPIML), Ashutosh (Leader, AAP), former DUTA presidents Shri Ram Oberoi and Nandita Narain and Prof. Sonajharia Minz, President of JNUTA. All of them underlined the problem that the UGC’s notification of 5 March 2018 contradicts the Government’s own decision to seek a review of the Supreme Court Order. 9 central universities have already advertised vacant posts on the basis of reformulated Rosters. In all of them, reserved posts have been drastically reduced to almost nothing.

In Delhi University, the UGC Notification has put a complete halt to the process of permanent appointments that had begun at the behest of the Delhi High Court. With 50% DU faculty waiting to be regularised in permanent jobs, the UGC Notification directly contravenes all advertised vacancies and endangers the interview schedules.

The DUTA National Convention has unanimously demanded the immediate withdrawal of the UGC Notification on the Reformulation of the Roster and it has asked the Government to issue a clear directive to all universities and colleges to proceed with routine permanent appointments on the basis of the 200-point Roster and by counting the institution as a unit, as per 2006 UGC Guidelines on Reservation.

Link: Resolution adopted at National Convention on Reservation

Rajib Ray President, DUTA

Vivek Chaudhary Secretary, DUTA