Government to seek review of SC order on varsity faculty recruitment

The government will soon file a review petition against the Supreme Court decision upholding the Allahabad High Court order for department-wise reservation in recruitment of university faculty, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday. The Supreme Court last month rejected a special leave petition filed by the human resource development ministry against the high court order, which had changed the method of recruitment from one done on the basis of university as a unit, as in practice, to one done with a department as a unit.

Javadekar told reporters here that that the government will again challenge the Supreme Court decision and recruitment will not start in universities till the previous method is restored. "We will file a review petition soon and we will put our point strongly. We are confident there will be justice and reservation will continue as per the earlier system. The government will ensure that reservation for SC/ST/OBCs is not hampered," he said.

There have been protests by some teachers' group against the department-wise recruitment system, which, they have been contending, will lead to less recruitment chances for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Class candidates. However, other teachers say that the method is more just and the decision will eventually benefit all sections of teachers.