The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the Allahabad High Court’s order to calculate the number of reserved faculty posts for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe categories on the basis on each department’s strength rather than on the overall faculty strength of the institution, reports Economic Times (ET).

“The SC has dismissed the government’s petition challenging the Allahabad High Court order of 2017 in its oral orders. The bench upheld the department-wise reservation formula, saying it was incorrect to club departments and calculate reserved seats,” said Rohit Amit Sthalekar, an advocate who was part of the hearing.

The High Court had earlier dismissed University Grants Commission’s (UGC) circular that proposed to calculate the number of reserved seats institution-wise, rather than department-wise.

UGC, while issuing the new rules, had pointed out that there were specific departments which had no teachers from the SC/ST communities and these seats went vacant year after year. Hence, it was imperative to calculate reserved seats by taking into consideration the total faculty posts in a University.

However, some SC and ST groups alleged that this new formula would practically reduce the number of reserved seats.

Recruitment Came To A Grinding Halt

Due to the confusion arising out of the divergent opinions between the UGC and the High Court, recruitment for over five thousand posts across the country was frozen.

The government had also contemplated bringing in an ordinance to restore the old system of department-wise reservation.

Also Read: 10 Per Cent Reservation For General Category: Four Reasons Why This May Be A Political Game-Changer

Reservation Quota in Education

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