Govt committee looking into ways to file a review petition to original court order despite deadline having elapsed.
New Delhi: The parliamentary committee on the welfare of scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) has taken strong exception to a recent government order changing the quota calculation formula for faculty positions at universities.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) order, which followed an Allahabad high court directive upheld by the Supreme Court, rules that, to calculate quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs, every department of a university be considered a separate unit. At present, the entire university is treated as a single unit.
Concerns have been raised that the new formula will leave fewer faculty positions at universities for reservation candidates.
The parliamentary panel’s chairman, Dr Kirit Solanki, took suo motu cognisance of the 5 March UGC order and has already held two high-level meetings with all the ministries and departments concerned on the need to reverse it.
The participants at the 9 and 12 March meetings included top officers of the ministries of human resource development, law, and tribal affairs, the department of personnel and training, the national commission for SCs and STs, and the UGC, Solanki told The Print.
“As the chairman of the parliamentary committee on the welfare of SCs and STs, I thought it was important to address this issue,” Solanki said.
“The committee is of the view that the current order is problematic and it is against the spirit of the Constitution. We impressed upon all the departments that the… calculation must be decided keeping the Constitution in mind,” he added.
Solanki said he flagged the order to the ministries concerned soon after he started receiving representations against the UGC order. “I examined the concerns and found them valid. We felt it was important that we intervene. We are glad that the departments are responding to the concerns,” he said.
ThePrint was the first to report, Monday, the Modi government’s decision to consider filing a review petition to undo its own order. Faced with instant protests from the varsity system and a call from the parliamentary panel, the government has set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine the feasibility of filing a review petition to undo the order.
Solanki, a member of the Lok Sabha, added discussions had revealed that while the time to file a review petition had already elapsed, the government may seek an exception in view of the serious implications involved. “A six-member committee has now been set up and we hope it will address the concerns,” he added.
The committee has asked the HRD ministry and the UGC to ensure the order is put on hold until a legal solution is found, he added.