Should Universities Apply Reservations In Teaching Positions Department-Wise, SC Set To Examine

The Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices R.K.Agrawal and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, on Friday, June 16, issued notice returnable in four weeks, on an appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s April 7 judgment, (Vivekanand Tiwari v Union of India), quashing the University Grants Commission’s 2006 Guidelines requiring application of reservation, treating the University as a “Unit”.

The High Court has held that reservation is to be applied department-wise or subject-wise treating it as a “Unit” and not the University as a “Unit”. The High Court faulted the UGC for applying its guidelines in a blanket manner, without considering why non-interchangeable posts have been clubbed in for treating them as a cadre/unit.

The High Court reasoned that if the University is taken as a Unit for every level of teaching and applying the roster it could result into some departments/subjects having all reserved candidates, and some having only unreserved candidates. Such proposition would be discriminatory and unreasonable and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, it held.

The High Court, therefore, quashed Clause 6(c) and 8(a)(v) of the UGC Guidelines 2006 and the letter of the UGC dated 19.2.2008, to the Universities, to follow the Guidelines, while applying reservations, and the advertisement released by the Benaras Hindu University applying reservation in tune with these UGC Guidelines, and the letter.