Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Bill

Why in news?

The Lok Sabha has passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill-2019, replacing an earlier ordinance.

Why was an ordinance passed?

• In 2018, the UGC announced that an individual department (instead of the institution) will be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved.
• This was based on an Allahabad High Court order from 2017.
• This led to a move from the 200-point roster system to a 13-point roster.
• [The 200-point roster system considers the university as the unit rather than the 13-point roster system which considers department as the unit.]
• The Supreme Court rejected the review petition by the government on the UGC directive.
• So the government passed an Ordinance.
• According to the ordinance, the system will revert to a 200-point roster.
• This was also endorsed by student and teacher organisations across the country.

What is the objective of the Bill?

• This Bill is to ensure reservations in teaching positions in central institutions for persons belonging to –
  1. 1. Scheduled Castes
     2. Scheduled Tribes
     3. socially and educationally backward classes
     4. economically weaker sections

• According to the HRD Ministry, there are more than 7,000 teaching jobs lying vacant in central educational institutions.
• This Bill is aimed at filling those vacancies.
• It also serves the purpose of fulfilling the demands of people from the above sections, for their rights as mentioned in the Constitution.

What are the key provisions?

• Coverage and exceptions - The Bill will apply to ‘central educational institutions’ which include -
  1. 1. universities set up by Acts of Parliament
     2. institutions deemed to be a university
     3. institutions of national importance
     4. institutions receiving aid from the central government

• However, it excludes certain institutions of excellence, research institutions, and institutions of national and strategic importance.
• E.g. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, etc.
• It also excludes minority education institutions.  

• Reservation of posts - The Bill provides for reservation of posts in direct recruitment of teachers (out of the sanctioned strength).

• [Direct recruitment takes place by inviting applications from those eligible to teach in a Central institution, as against public advertisement.]

• For the purpose of such reservation, a central educational institution will be regarded as one unit.
• So, allocation of teaching posts for reserved categories would be done on the basis of all positions of the same level (such as assistant professor) across departments.
• [Under previous guidelines, each department was regarded as an individual unit for the purpose of reservation.]

What is the rationale?

• The High Court noted that institution-wise reservation would result in some departments having only reservation beneficiaries and others only those from the open category.
• While this is agreeable, having department as the unit too would mean that smaller faculties do not have any reservation.
• In this, it needs 14 posts to accommodate SC and ST candidates, as their turn would come only at the seventh and 14th vacancy.
• There may be no vacancies in many departments for many years, with none from the reserved categories for decades.
• So, the narrower basis (department-wise) would mean fewer aspirants from OBC and SC/ST sections being recruited as assistant professors.
• Instead, taking the institution as the unit would give more opportunities for these sections.
• In other words, in a wider pool of posts, the quotas of 27% for OBC, 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST could be effectively applied.

How will it benefit?

• According to the UGC’s annual report for 2017-18, nearly two-thirds of assistant professors in Central universities are from the general category.
• Their representation would go up further, as the present Bill also applies the 10% quota for the economically weak among the general category.
• Given this, applying the court’s department-wise roster norm would have deepened the sense of deprivation of the backward classes and SC/ST communities.
• In this light, the Bill provides a welcome relief for aspirants from the disadvantaged sections of society.
• Restoring the earlier system would serve a vital social purpose and ensure social justice in teachers’ reservation.

Source: PRS India, The Hindu

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