Delhi University, as per University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, has introduced a ‘13-point roster’ which considers each subject department as a unit to implement quotas in appointments.This is a change from the earlier used ‘200-point roster’ which regarded the college or university as a unit.
In the 13-point roster, first three positions go to the general category, the fourth to Other Backward Classes, seventh to Scheduled Castes and the 14th to Scheduled Tribes but this means that in smaller departments, the chances of SC’s and ST’s getting reservation diminish. For instance, in Sanskrit Department in Delhi University a maximum of three teachers are required per college.
This also means that the reservation in a subject department totals to 35.71% (5 appointments out of 14) which is lesser than the constitutionally mandated 49.5% reservation.
Arguments in favour of the 13-point roster suggest that sometimes whole departments go without a single reserved candidate. The advantage of the 200-point roster over the 13-point roster is that deficit in reservation in one department is compensated by other departments.
The Supreme Court dismissed two petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court judgment ruling in favour of department-wise reservation in universities. The UGC had asked all universities to put on hold their recruitment process until the Supreme Court ruled on the two petitions.
