The Supreme Court issued notices to the Central government and 23 IITs on a petition seeking directions to implement reservation policy in admission to research degree programmes and recruitment of faculty.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, B R Gavai and BV Nagarathna was hearing a petition filed by academic-cum-researcher Sachchidanand Pandey, who has sought directions for the Centre to evolve a mechanism for resolving the complaints of harassment by students and scholars with transparency and in a time-bound manner.
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Besides, the request seeks direction to the IITs to constitute a committee of technical experts to review the performance of existing faculty, violation of reservation norms and to facilitate the formation of a transparent recruitment policy.
The bench clarified that it would issue notice only on the first prayer that is, regarding the implementation of the reservation policy in the IITs. Pandey contends that the admission process to research programmes and the appointment of faculty members to IITs is unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary.
As per the current reservation policy, SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are to be provided with 15 percent, 7.5 percent, and 27 percent reservation, respectively. The petitioner, however, alleged that in last five years, IITs have admitted only 9.1 percent, 2.1 percent and 23.2 percent of SC, ST and OBC scholars respectively.
