Ordinance only route as SC rejects plea on faculty quota

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the Centre’s review petition to overturn the new faculty reservation formula in Universities, leaving it with the sole option of moving an ordinance to continue with the existing quota regime.

On January 22, the SC dismissed a Central government special leave petition and upheld the 2017 Allahabad High Court order that has mandated calculation of reserved category posts by treating each department as a ‘unit’ instead of treating the university as a single unit.

Politicians from across parties have taken up the matter with the government as it will drastically bring down SC/ST/ OBC representation in university faculty.


The Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar had assured in the Budget session of the Parliament that the government would file a review petition and if this does not yield a favourable order, it would look at an ordinance to restore the quota regime.

While the HRD ministry has moved a cabinet proposal for the Ordinance, it is yet to be taken up and approved.

The HRD ministry’s assessment- also submitted to the Supreme Court in the petition- said that the change in quota formula “drastically reduces, and, in many departments completely wipes out, the representation of members of the SC/ST community in services under the State, (i.e. in Central Universities, deemed to be universities, colleges and other grant-in-aid or research institutions and centers across all departments) thereby defeating the constitutional mandate”.

It also would bring down total SC/ST/ OBC representation is expected to come down by more than half- from 2663 seats to 1241 in a year. and will work “against the interest of SCs/STs” ,amount to “grave miscarriage of justice and will jeopardize the rights of the SCs/STs & OBCs”. At the same time, general category representation will increase significantly.