SFI alleges reservation violations in JNU PhD admissions

NEW DELHI: The Students' Federation of India (SFI) on Wednesday alleged discrepancies in how Jawaharlal Nehru University implemented reservation norms for PhD admissions in 2026-27. SFI demanded immediate rectification and claimed that the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commissions for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) had taken cognisance of its complaint. 

Addressing a press conference at the Press Club of India, several leaders, including former Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat, former West Bengal minister Debalina Hembram and JNUSU vice-president Gopika Babu, alleged that the university's admission prospectus did not provide the prescribed share of seats for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and persons with benchmark disabilities (PwBD) candidates. 

The organisation said the NCSC issued a notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) registrar on October 8, seeking details and action taken on its September 29 complaint. It alleged that after the university failed to respond by the October 23 deadline, the commission issued an ultimatum on October 27, asking it to respond within seven days. 

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SFI claims discrepancies in JNU PhD admissions

SFI said NCST has also taken cognisance of the matter. The organisation alleged that JNU advertised 711 regular seats across three admission channels: UGC-NET, UGC-NET-JRF, and GATE. 

SFI claimed that against the 7.5 per cent reservation requirement for ST candidates, at least 53 seats should have been earmarked, while the prospectus advertised only 38, a shortfall of around 15 seats. 

Similarly, it said, the prospectus advertised 103 seats for SC candidates against around 107 required under the 15 per cent reservation requirement. For persons with benchmark disabilities, the prospectus earmarked 17 seats against a minimum of around 36, the organisation alleged. 

SFI attributed the discrepancies to a "micro-unit" seat-allocation method, under which reservation percentages apply separately to individual university centres and sub-disciplines, many of which have small seat intakes. 

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'No seats for SC, ST students'

The organisation claimed that splitting seats further across the NET, NET-JRF, and GATE admission channels led several centres to advertise no seats for SC and ST candidates. 

It alleged that as many as 29 centres advertised zero seats for both categories in the current admission cycle. The student body also raised concerns over the alleged de-reservation of vacant reserved seats in previous admission cycles. 

SFI said it had filed a Right to Information application on September 23 seeking details of PhD admissions for the 2025-26 academic session. Still, the university had described the information sought as "voluminous". 

The organisation demanded that the university correct the alleged reservation shortfalls in the ongoing 2026-27 admission process. If the university proceeds with viva-voce examinations, it should immediately announce a special drive to fill backlog seats, said SFI, adding that the admission process should otherwise be stalled until the relevant reserved seats are advertised. 

SFI All India president Adarsh M Saji, All India joint secretary and former JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, JNUSU vice-president Gopika Babu and SFI JNU secretary Sagar Singal addressed the press conference.