IIT Delhi denies 132 PhD seats to SC, ST, OBC candidates: APPSC finds

NEW DELHI: A total of 132 PhD seats were denied for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Castes (OBC) by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), the RTI data shared by the Ambedkar, Periyar, Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a student collective of IIT Bombay, revealed.

As per the PhD admission 2023-24 application record, a total of 4,226 candidates belonging to SC, ST, and OBC, applied, of which only 203 students were selected. Four departments of IIT Delhi have not granted admission to a single candidate from reserved category. Notably, only 2 female candidates were selected for IIT Delhi PhD admission 2023-24.

Sharing the images of data showing the number of applications, the APPSC said: “Despite having more than enough applications from dalit bahujan adivasi students, 132 seats were denied to them. Why doesn't the government nor the judiciary hold the administration of these institutions accountable for violating constitutional rights of students.”

Despite setting up an SC, ST cell and passing a mandate that empowers it to monitor and evaluate the reservation policy in PhD admission and faculty recruitment, “IIT Delhi is continuing to violate reservation”. “Our data shows that 25 departments did not admit a single ST Student last year,” the student collective said.

Also read IIT Kanpur violates reservation policy again; 14 departments do not have ST faculty: APPSC

IIT Delhi PhD admission 2023-24

Here’s the number of students applied and denied PhD admissions by the institute.

Also read Over 13,600 SC, ST, OBC students dropped out of IITs, IIMs, central universities in 5 years

IIT-D: Number of ST applicants

Nine departments in IIT Delhi did not offer admission to a single student belonging to the ST category. Of the 334 applicants, only 11 ST students were granted admission.