Reservation for faculties: Govt to bring ordinance or bill

New Delhi: The Government on Friday said it will bring an ordinance or a Bill if the Supreme Court rejects its review petition on reservation mechanism for faculties in universities.

With Rajya Sabha proceedings being washed away earlier this week over protests from opposition parties over the issue, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar made a brief statement in the House saying till such time no recruitment will be allowed in universities.

Soon after listed official papers were presented to the House, Javadekar rose to say that a study has been conducted on how department-wise reservations to faculties will affect SC, ST and OBCs in 30 universities.

The SP and BSP had on Thursday not allowed the House to function over their demand that the government bring a Bill to protect the interest of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBC.

The government will file a review petition in the Supreme Court after its Special Leave Petition on faculty reservation mechanism for universities was rejected by the apex court.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had announced in March last year that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates following an order by the Allahabad High Court in April in 2017.

The response from the government came as several opposition members gave notices under Rule 267 seeking setting aside of the business of the day to take up the issue.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the issue in these notices has been addressed by Javadekar.