Sachichida Nand Pandey requested the notices from a bench led by Justice L Nageswara Rao. It was requested that educational institutions follow reservation guidelines for admitting students to research degree programs and hiring professors. One of the petitioners is Dr. Sachchida Nand Pandey, a geothermal energy researcher.
Key Highlight:
- The Supreme Court ordered the government and Indian Institutes of Technology to respond to a petition asking for guidelines on the admission and hiring faculty members in research degree programs.
- A researcher, Sachichida Nand Pandey, petitioned the bench led by Justice L Nageswara Rao and included Justices BRGavai and B V Nagarathna.
- Pandey argued that the IITs used a “completely unconstitutional, unlawful and arbitrary” process to select students.
- The government will also extend reservations to all faculty positions, including technical ones, for associate professors and professors in November 2019.
Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered the government and Indian Institutes of Technology to respond to a petition asking for guidelines on the admission and hiring faculty members in research degree programs.
Supreme Court Justices B. R. Gavai and B. V. Nagarathna and Justice L Nageswara Rao issued notices on a petition from a researcher, Sachichida Nand Pandey.
He claimed that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) violated the Indian reservation policy, which mandates that socially marginalized communities from the SC, ST, and OBC categories be treated. Pandey argued that the IITs used a “completely unconstitutional, unlawful and arbitrary” process to select students.
“IITs are not following the transparent process of recruiting faculty members,” and this “opens up the window for non-deserving candidates to enter IITs through connections,” which “increases chances of corruption, favoritism, and discrimination, affecting internal ranking and technological growth of the country.”
Humanities and management professorships at all levels (assistant, associate, and professor) were reserved for people belonging to SC, ST, and OBC categories, according to the letter the central government sent to the IITs’ directors back in June 2008.
According to a statement made on Wednesday, the government will also extend reservations to all faculty positions, including technical ones, for associate professors and professors in November 2019.
A researcher, Sachichida Nand Pandey, petitioned the bench led by Justice L Nageswara Rao and included Justices BRGavai and B V Nagarathna.
Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey filed a petition on behalf of Dr. Sachchida Nand Pandey, a geothermal energy researcher, claiming that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are not adhering to the government’s reservation policy for socially disadvantaged communities.
According to the IITs, research program faculty members’ admissions and appointment processes were “completely unconstitutional, illegal, and arbitrary.” According to the petition, there is an open door for non-deserving and useless candidates to get into the IITs through connections that increase the likelihood of corruption, favoritism, and discrimination in the process of hiring faculty.
According to the petition, the central government had written to IIT Directors (Kharagpur, Madras; Bombay; Kanpur; Roorkee; and Guwahati) in June 2008 to implement the reservation for SC, ST, and OBC categories in the requirement to a teaching post at Assistant Professor Level in Science and Technology, as well as at all levels (Associate, Professor) in Humanities and Management Department.
Also, in November 2019, the Government of India added all faculty positions, including technical ones, to the list of jobs eligible for reservation. In light of this, the petition claimed that the IITs were in flagrant violation of the university’s reservation policy. Dr. Sachchida Nand Pandey requested that the Union of India create a mechanism for resolving the issues faced by students and scholars and to decide the research harassment complaints.
As a part of the relief requested, a committee of technical experts was invited to review the performance of the current faculty, cancel the appointments of non-performing faculty, and not follow the reservation policy.
