DU’s reservation roster recasting marred by 'discrepancies', SC, ST posts lost: Parliamentary Committee

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has criticised the University of Delhi for "faulty implementation" of the reservation roster, alleging that the process has been marred by "discrepancies" that have deprived SC and ST faculty of their legitimate posts. In its fifth report tabled in Parliament, the committee said the recasting of reservation rosters in 2013 from "department as a unit" to "university as a unit" resulted in many unreserved posts being converted to reserved ones, but the university failed to notify backlog vacancies and, in some cases, dereserved them for unreserved candidates.

"The Committee are constrained to note that since the inception of the exercise of recasting rosters in University of Delhi, the same has been marred with various discrepancies and shortcomings due to its faulty implementation," it said. The panel also flagged that departments were arranged alphabetically during recasting, creating imbalances in the distribution of reserved positions. The committee rejected the university's claim that there are no backlog vacancies and directed it to identify these posts and conduct a special recruitment drive within three months.

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Criticism of ‘None Found Suitable’

It also recommended that reserved posts currently held by unreserved faculty be reassigned to SC/ST candidates when they fall vacant, and that updated rosters be published online. Expressing concern over the "under-representation" of SC/ST staff, especially at associate professor and professor levels, the panel urged concessions and relaxations for eligible candidates, criticised the use of "None Found Suitable" to reject qualified applicants, and recommended urgent regularisation of long-serving ad hoc and contractual employees.

On student admissions, the report noted that ST enrolment remains "dismal" despite concessions, and called for a significant cut-off reduction to fill reserved seats. It also found that hostel reservation norms were not being implemented uniformly and proposed dedicated SC/ST hostels. The committee further recommended setting up SC/ST cells in every college, pooling principal posts across colleges to apply reservation, and increasing nominations of SC/ST staff for foreign training programmes.