Cabinet clears ordinance on reservation roster for faculty positions in varsities

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal for promulgation of The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Ordinance, 2019 to restore the earlier 200-point roster based reservation system in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

The new system will consider the university or college as one unit, instead of treating department or subject as one unit.

"The Cabinet has approved proposal for promulgation of The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Ordinance, 2019 to provide for the reservation of faculty in appointments by direct recruitment of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBL) in central educational institutions and for matters connected there with," Union minister Arun Jaitley said at a press conference.

The ordinance will ensure that constitutional provisions of reservation for SC, ST and SEBL in the faculty recruitment will be protected and current impasse in recruitment would be resolved.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "The decision will also now pave the way for filling up of more than 5,000 vacancies by direct recruitment in teachers' cadre."

Earlier this week, Javadekar had said the Centre was committed to restoring the reservation roster in educational institutions following a series of protests over the issue by various students' and teachers' organisations and asked the protesting groups to withdraw their agitation.

They had been urging the government to bring an ordinance to restore the 200-point roster taking college or university as a unit for reservation in teaching posts.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had announced last March that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for the SC and ST candidates, following an order by the Allahabad High Court in April 2017.

The Supreme Court had last month dismissed a review petition filed by the HRD Ministry after its special leave petition against the court order was rejected by the apex court.

Javadekar had said in the Lok Sabha on February 11 that the government can "bring an ordinance if its review petition filed in the top court is rejected.