The HRD Ministry, meanwhile, drafted a Bill to overturn the UGC order and sent it to the Cabinet for approval — there has been no development so far on that front
The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the order of the Allahabad High Court which ruled that reservation in faculty positions in universities should be calculated department-wise and not by taking the total seats in a university as basis.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Indira Banerjee rejected the Centre’s special leave petition which challenged the April 7, 2017 order of the Allahabad High Court.
In April 2018, the HRD Ministry filed an SLP following a political furore over the University Grants Commission’s March 5 order of the same year, announcing that the number of reserved faculty posts across universities and colleges would be calculated department-wise and not based on the aggregate vacant posts.
The change, first reported by The Indian Express on October 23, 2017, was based on the Allahabad High Court verdict.
The Centre argued that calculating the vacancies department-wise would reduce the number of seats for the reserved category and defeat the object of implementing the reservation policy.