Manoj Jha writes to Javadekar, asks to bring ordinance on reservation roster for teaching positions

Rajya Sabha MP and Delhi University professor Manoj Jha has written to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar urging him to bring an ordinance on reservation roster for teaching positions in higher education institutions (HEIs) during the upcoming Budget session. The UGC had announced in March that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates following an order by the Allahabad High Court in April 2017.

The HRD Ministry had filed a special leave petition against the court order which was rejected by the Supreme Court. It is clear as daylight that this formula (the new formula) is intended to steal the reservation benefits from the SC/ST/OBC teachers, Jha said in the letter written on Saturday.

"If recruitments are held using this mischievous new formula it will force out SC/ST/OBC ad-hoc, temporary and contractual teachers currently teaching against these vacancies and replace them with general category teachers," the letter read.

This will not only impact the mentoring of the students from these communities but also turn universities and colleges into exclusionary spaces bereft of diversity and shall be tantamount to generational losses to the educational attainments of SC/ST/OBC communities and a great loss to the nation, he said.

"It is my fervent request that your government must take immediate and necessary action to bring a bill restoring the 200-point roster taking college or university as a unit for reservation in teaching post during the Budget session of the parliament," Jha said.