The Hindu : New Delhi News : JNU to roll out OBC quota in a phased manner

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JNU to roll out OBC quota in a phased manner

Parul Sharma

NEW DELHI: After deciding last month to implement the 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes at one go from the upcoming new academic year, Jawaharlal Nehru University has now changed its policy after it was found “legally untenable” by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.

The University will now be rolling out the OBC quota in a phased manner. At the last meeting of the JNU Academic Council held on June 5, it was decided that from the next session there would be an overall increase of about 24 per cent seats to accommodate 12 per cent OBC candidates. “We have been getting roughly about 20 per cent OBCs each year because of our deprivation points system. So we thought we would increase 7 per cent reservation for OBCs this year to accommodate the entire 27 per cent reservation. But the Ministry officials said it was legally untenable since this 20 per cent share for OBCs was being taken from the general seats. And according to the Central Act, general seats have to remain untouched,” said sources in the JNU administration.

“So that upset our calculation and we had to start all over again. We can’t increase it by 54 per cent since we do not have the necessary infrastructure. Till last year, we provided 22.5 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. We provided the deprivation points within those non-reserved (general) seats. As per the Supreme Court judgment, we can’t disturb those seats now,” they added. The Students’ Federation of India is agitated over the JNU administration’s latest decision.

“This 12 per cent OBC reservation is totally unacceptable to us. This will bring down the actual number of OBC students studying in our University,” said JNU-SFI secretary Roshan Kishore.

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