Aastha Thakur
Published on: 20 September, 2022 at 20:44 IST
The apex court in its decision directed the Centre and the Indian Institutes of Technology to admit students in research degree programmes and recruitment of faculty members as per the reservation quota provided under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019.
The bench comprised of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar directed that the concerned respondents (Centre and 23 IITs) are hereby directed to follow the reservation and act as per the reservations provided under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019.
The court was of view that the Act was established to provide reservation for direct recruitment of candidates from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, socially and educationally backward classes and the economically weaker sections in Central Educational Institutions.
The plea was filed by one Sachchinda Nand Pandey in 2021, pleading favourable order for the respondents to follow the Reservation Policy in admission to research degree programmes and recruitment of faculty in the IITs.
The petitioner counsel Advocate-on-Record Ashwini Kumar Dubey, in its plea alleges that the IITs were completely violating the reservation policies envisaged under the 2019 Act, to the extent of 15 percent to the SC, 17 percent to the ST and 27 percent to the OBCs.
The respondent, Central Government in its counter affidavit states that reservation is indeed being provided with respect to all the Central Educational Institutions including the IITs.
This prompted the Court to dispose of the matter while directing the proper implementation of the Act.
The petitioner asserted that the IITs’ recruitment procedures for faculty members were not open and transparent. Due to this, non-deserving candidates gained access to these prestigious schools through connections, which fosters corruption, favouritism, and discrimination. According to the petition, the current admissions process for the research programme and the hiring of faculty members at IIT are “completely unconstitutional, illegal, and arbitrary.”
The plea also requested to cancel the appointments of non-performing academicians owing to violations of reservation standards.