Lok Sabha today passed The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre), Bill 2019 which reverses the decision of Allahabad High Court upheld by the Supreme Court directing Departments in Universities to be treated as separate units while calculating the reserved posts for SCs, STs, and OBCs. The Bill proposes the University or the College to be treated as the unit instead of Department while calculating the reserved seat, reverting to the earlier position before the High Court order.
The Bill will apply to central educational institutions including universities established under Acts of Parliament, deemed universities, institutions of national importance, and the institutions receiving aid from central government. Clause 3 of the Bill, which is a non-obstante clause, nullifies the effect of judgements which ordered reservation to be granted department-wise.
The Bill, however, exempts certain institutions notified as ‘institutions of excellence’. These institutions are- Homi Bhabha National Institute (including its constituent units), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science, National Brain Research Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Physical Research Laboratory, Space Physics Laboratory and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. The Central government had promulgated an ordinance on this subject in the month of March which will stand repealed when this Bill is passed by the Rajya Sabha.
This bill will help in filling around 8000 posts all over the country in various higher educational institutions which are lying vacant at present.
In the month of January this year, the Supreme Court had dismissed a petition filed by the Central government challenging the Allahabad High Court order given on 7th April 2017. The order changed the formula to calculate the number of reserved posts from 200 point roster to 13 point roster system. The court had ordered that each individual department in a college or university will have to be considered as a separate unit while calculating the number of posts reserved for reserved categories. This had effectively ended reservation for SC, ST and OBCs in most colleges and universities, as most departments in such institutions don’t have enough number of posts to have reserved posts. This had the effect of considerably reducing the reserved posts in higher educational institutions by at least 50-60% and even up to 90-95% in many institutions.
