Private universities and colleges will have to provide the 10% quota for candidates from economically weaker sections (EWS) as well as for those from the scheduled castes (SCs),scheduled tribes (STs), and other backward classes (OBCs) from academic session 2019-20 itself, Union Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.
This will hold true for both aided and unaided private colleges, a senior HRD ministry official said, adding that the government hopes to achieve this through a bill that it plans to introduce in the budget session of Parliament that will make it necessary for all private colleges to create not just the EWS quota, but also force those that currently do not have a SC, ST, OBC quota to introduce these.
“A bill will be brought, most likely in the budget session of the Parliament, to give reservations to the economically weaker section among the general category, and also to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes as well as the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in the unaided institutions also,” the official added.
That could be contentious. Unaided private colleges currently do not provide SC, ST, and OBC quota after the Allahabad High Court ruled in a case in 2011 that they do not need to.
Legal experts have used that as a basis to suggest that even the EWS quota will not apply to unaided private institutions. A challenge of the Allahabad court’s decision is before the Supreme Court.
The minister said the number of seats in all institutions could rise by as much as 25% as they create space for EWS candidates, but without reducing the number of seats meant for other students.
“From 2019-2020 academic sessions we will have this reservation implemented while keeping intact the SC, ST and OBC reservation. This will be done by creating additional seats. The orders will be released by the UGC, AICTE and the ministry of Human Resource Development in a week,” Javadekar said.