Government may issue Ordinance to restore SC/ST faculty quota in Universities

New Delhi: In a last ditch effort to counter political opposition and a social backlash against dilution of university faculty reservations ahead of the elections, the Modi government is likely to issue an ordinance this week to restore the earlier system of quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, ET has learnt.

The ordinance to impose reservation university-wise instead of by department is set to be taken up on March 6, when the Union Cabinet meets possibly for the last time to clear projects and schemes before the model code of conduct comes into force with the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule.

The Cabinet is also expected to approve an additional allocation of about Rs 4,000 crore to fund implementation of the 10% quota for economically weaker classes in higher education institutes, officials said.


The ordinance on university faculty quotas will clearly say that “a Central Educational Institution shall be regarded as one unit” for the purpose of reservation of posts.

This will undo the recent Supreme Court order that upheld an Allahabad High Court order of 2017 and made each university department the unit for calculating reserved category posts.

A bill to this effect has been pending with the Cabinet since December 2018 and is expected to be taken up as an ordinance. While the government has been concerned over alienating upper caste voters, pressure on the issue has been mounting from the Congress and the left parties, NDA ally Apna Dal, former NDA ally RLSP,RJD, SP and BSP.