30 MP write to Javadekar over alleged 'Reservation Policy' Violation at JNU

NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: As many as 30 Member of Parliament have sent a letter to the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar over alleged violation of reservation system for the SCs, STs, and OBCs at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The letter has been sent after a Petition was submitted to the Lok Sabha’s Committee through CPI-M MP Jitendra Choudhury. The petitioner, a student of the JNU has contented against the current method of selection criteria for M.Phil and Ph.D. admissions.

It is has been claimed that in the present system a candidate requires scoring at least 50 percent in the written exam to qualify for the viva voce or oral exam, with no provision for ‘Reservation’.

The Letter sent by MPs reads, “The university constituted a committee in 2016 to study the discrimination in the admission process with special reference to viva voce. The committee submitted its report based on the data (2012-2015), which recommended that the discriminatory pattern would get mitigated if the viva is reduced from 30 marks to 15 marks.”

While as per JNU students earlier it was 70 marks for written test, 30 marks for viva. Combined marks of both were considered for selection, besides properly fulfilling the reservation norms as per the Constitutional Provisions.

“This shows that the university has violated the Act of Parliament, the Central Education Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006. The university has also violated the constitutional provision for access to higher education by SC/ STs,” the letter says.

It further added, “Therefore we urge your august office to prevail upon the Vice Chancellor to restore the reservation policy for the admission in M.Phil and M.Phil/Ph.D. programmes.”

It claims that the Clauses in the Admission Policy and Procedure 2018-19 (Annexure 1) has made written examination a qualifying paper and viva the sole criteria for selection.

The Parliamentarians who belong to various Political Parties that include Congress, Left parties, NCP, RJD and others have urged the HRD Minister to intervene and stop the alleged violation of the ‘Reservation Policy’ for SC, ST and people with disabilities (PWD) students to “protect the rights of the candidates belonging to the SC, ST, OBC and PWD in compliance to the Central Education Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006.”