Days after Bharat Bandh, the Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared an ordinance to restore the 200-point roster for reservation in faculty recruitment in universities and colleges.
“Cabinet approves proposal for promulgation of “The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Ordinance, 2019,” tweeted Sitanshu Kar, PIB spokesperson.
#Cabinet approves proposal for promulgation of “The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Ordinance, 2019#cabinetdecisions pic.twitter.com/6P5lxWYlx1
— Sitanshu Kar (@DG_PIB) March 7, 2019
According to the reports, reservation for teachers will now be implemented, taking each university as a unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates.
Following an Allahabad High Court order, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had introduced a new 13-point roster system on the reservation mechanism for university teachers in March 2018. Under the new system calculated total posts department-wise rather than institution-wise. The individual department was considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates.
The departure from the 200-point roster system led to widespread protests across the country led by teachers unions and students.
This is the second time the government has rolled back a court order in the face of protests by the SC-ST communities. Nationwide demonstrations against the perceived dilution of the SC/ST Act by the Supreme Court, which barred provisions such as automatic arrest and no anticipatory bail, had spurred the government to introduce a bill last August to effectively reverse the judgment.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had on Tuesday reiterated the government’s commitment to the old formula for reservation in teaching jobs in higher education.
