No posts in Jawaharlal Nehru University have been de-reserved: JNU VC

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has proposed a draft guidelines to de-reserve the posts of faculty members in higher education institutions if ‘enough reserved candidates are not available. In view of that, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has stated that no posts in JNU have been de-reserved.

The JNU press release read, “As VC JNU, I want to reiterate to all stakeholders that no posts in JNU have been de-reserved. We have got very good candidates under the reserved category. In the 54 year old history of JNU the highest number of reserved category faculty have been recruited during my tenure as VC and we are proud of implementing the Constitutional guarantees under the Reservation policy as stipulated by MoE, GOI.”

The new guidelines are open for public feedback till today, January 28. The draft guidelines were published in the last week of December. The guidelines are applicable to all the central universities, deemed-to-be-universities, and other autonomous bodies or institutions which are under the central government or those receiving grant-in-aid from the UGC, and union government.

Also read UGC suggests de-reserving SC,ST, OBC posts if enough reserved candidates not available

The press release further read, “JNU would like to remind all about the existing office memorandum no 36012/17/2002-Estt (Res) Government of India Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions Department of Personnel and Training issued on 6th November 2003. In point 3 A for direct recruitment, this memorandum clearly states that no de- reservation is allowed for any category of vacancies for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).”

UGC Chairman’s response on de-reservation

The guidelines have been receiving backlash from several quarters. The official account of UGC took to X handle to clarify regarding the de-reservation policy. "This is to clarify that there has been no de-reservation of reserved category positions in Central Educational Institutions (CEI) in the past and there is going to be no such de-reservation. It is important for all HEIs to ensure that all backlog positions in reserved category are filled up through concerted efforts, " said M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC