Bill to nullify court's order on quota in appointment

The Centre has moved in to bring a bill to nullify a court verdict which directed last year for filling up the vacant posts of teachers in universities with implementation of reservation rules in appointments department-wise, instead of taking institution as a unit for the purpose.

The bill, drafted by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, stipulates for maintaining the vacancy roasters university-wise at all centrally-funded higher education institutions to implement reservation in appointment of faculty members accordingly.

The provisions of the bill would be applicable to direct recruitment of the teachers across all levels of faculty position—from the assistant professor to professor.

According to official sources, the ministry is racing against the time to give a final shape to the bill as it wants to bring the proposed legislation for its passage in the upcoming session of Parliament.

“Ministry has circulated the draft bill for inter-ministerial consultation. Once this process is over, it will be placed before the Cabinet for its nod,” sources said.

The Ministry was earlier working on to bring an Ordinance to overrule the Allahabad High Court's verdict in the matter amid growing demands for it from the teaching communities and Scheduled Castes leaders across the party line.

Following demands for an Ordinance, the Centre filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court a few months ago, challenging the Allahabad High Court's decision. But, the matter continues to remain sub judice with the apex court.

A change in Ministry's course action seems to have come in view of the growing resentments among the teaching community, ahead of the lok Sabha elections next year.

Implementation of the department-wise roaster system by the UGC following the court's order is one of the key issues that various university teachers associations and students bodies are raising and frequently holding protest in different parts of the country, dubbing the Modi government as “anti-Dalit.”

The issue has further deepened since Central University of Haryana went ahead with its move to fill up vacant seats under the new formula recently, ignoring the UGC's suggestion to wait for the apex court's decision in the matter.

The Federation of Central University Teachers' Association claims that the UGC's new formula for appointment of faculties would deny job opportunities to those belonging to reserved categories as the number of vacancies for them would drastically go down and even turn out to be nil in many of the cases with the implementation of department-wise roaster system.