New Delhi: A Parliamentary standing committee has called out central universities for “misapplying” the “Not Found Suitable” recruitment classification to deny faculty positions to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates, recommending mandatory video recording of all faculty interviews and documented reasons for every rejection.
The Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, chaired by BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, in its seventh report tabled in both Houses on Wednesday, examined the University of Hyderabad’s faculty recruitment records.
It found that eight SC/ST candidates— four SC and four ST—were declared “Not Found Suitable” for faculty positions over the past three years, blocking their appointment despite having cleared screening rounds.
“The Committee disapproves the continued use of NFS in faculty recruitment as it is a demoting factor toward SC/ST candidates,” the report states. “This tag is often misapplied to deny appointments even when candidates meet all required standard setup for the post, thereby violating the constitutional mandate of fair and due representation.”
The panel pointed to the absence of video recordings of interview proceedings as the central structural problem enabling this. With no record of what transpired in the interview room, candidates declared unsuitable have no means of challenging the decision and oversight bodies have nothing to review.
“In the absence of tangible proof like video recording of the interview held, the Committee are of the considered view that decision of NFS may raise some doubts in the mind of disqualified candidates,” the report notes.
“The Committee also calls for mandatory video recording of the entire interview process and documentation of reasons for rejection to be reviewed by oversight bodies, whenever doubts are expressed by the aggrieved or reviewing authority.”
In the University of Hyderabad case, the Committee recommended filling all the eight posts within three months.
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A wider recruitment failure
The NFS findings sit within a broader pattern of underrepresentation the Committee documented at the University of Hyderabad.
The university’s SC faculty strength stands at 14 percent of total teaching staff against the constitutionally mandated 15 percent, and ST faculty at 6 percent against the required 7.5 percent.
When confronted with this, the university told the Committee there were “no backlog vacancies” in teaching staff—a position the Committee flatly rejected.
Of 539 total sanctioned faculty positions, 419 have been filled. The university said recruitment for the remaining 120 is ongoing. The Committee recommended that all vacant positions be filled within three months, and no SC/ST faculty seat remain vacant for more than six months going forward.
UGC data placed before the Committee showed the problem extends well beyond Hyderabad. Across all UGC-regulated institutions, shortfalls as of August 2025 stood at 197 professor posts for SCs and 120 for STs, 324 Associate Professor posts for SCs and 199 for STs, and 190 Assistant Professor posts for SCs and 109 for STs.
3 years without SC/ST voice at top
The Committee also found that SC/ST officials had no representation on the University of Hyderabad’s Executive Council—its apex governing body — during 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2021-22. The Executive Council controls recruitment, promotions, curriculum and grievance redressal.
“Non-inclusion means policies are formulated without considering due safeguards and hurdles being faced by SC/ST faculty and students,” the report states. The Committee recommended amending the relevant Act to make SC/ST representation on Executive Councils mandatory across central universities.
For non-teaching staff, promotion backlogs have accumulated with explanations the Committee repeatedly refused to accept. In Group B, 10 SC and 4 ST promotion vacancies remain unfilled in 2024-25. In Group C, 18 SC and 8 ST vacancies persist. The university attributed this to “non-availability of eligible candidates in the feeder cadre”.
The Committee said it was “not inclined to accept the frequent stereotype reply” and directed the university to provide pre-promotion training, mentoring, or relaxation of qualifying service requirements to make SC/ST officials eligible.
It further directed that promotion vacancies reserved for SC/ST staff remain open until a candidate from the community becomes eligible, rather than being quietly lapsed.
Rosters without data
On reservation rosters—the registers tracking category-wise post distribution — the university told the Committee the system was “very much compliant to the government directives” with “no deviation”. The Committee was pointed in its response.
“A mere statement of compliance is meaningless unless the actual roster register, vacancy positions, and carry-forward details are provided,” the report states.
The panel recommended rosters be published on university websites submitted annually to UGC and the Ministry of Education, and audited by internal and external agencies. It called on the Ministry and UGC to issue show-cause notices to universities failing to meet roster obligations.
The Committee made a broader recommendation that the Ministry of Education formulate a binding policy requiring SC/ST representation on all governing bodies of every central university — Academic Councils, Finance Committees, Selection Committees and student bodies included.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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