What is this Bill?

The government promulgated an Ordinance with the same name on March 7, 2019. This Ordinance will be repealed before the Bill is introduced in Parliament.

This Bill is to ensure reservations in teaching positions in central institutions for persons from Scheduled Castes/Tribes, socially and educationally backward classes, and those from economically weaker sections.

Why was an Ordinance passed?

Last year, the University Grants Commission announced that an individual department will be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved, based on an Allahabad High Court order from 2017. This led to a move from the 200-point roster system to a 13-point roster.

Former Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had said in Parliament that the government was willing to bring an Ordinance if its review petition on this directive, filed in the Supreme Court, was rejected.

The Supreme Court rejected the review petition, and the government passed an Ordinance. According to this Ordinance, the system will revert to a 200-point roster. This was also endorsed by student and teacher organisations across the country.

Why is this coming up only now?

According to the HRD Ministry, there are more than 7,000 teaching jobs lying vacant in central educational institutions. This Bill is aimed at filling those vacancies.

The Bill also serves the purpose of fulfilling the demands of people from these sections, for their rights as mentioned in the Constitution.

How will recruitment happen?

According to the provisions of this Bill, teachers will be given jobs through direct recruitment. This means that the process of recruitment would be by inviting applications from those eligible to teach in a Central institution, as against public advertisement.

Are all Central institutions included in this Bill?

No, there are exceptions. Those institutes deemed as institutions of excellence, and of national and strategic importance will not come under this law.

These institutions are — Homi Bhabha National Institute (and all its constituent units), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science, National Brain Research Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Physical Research Laboratory, Space Physics Laboratory and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing.

Minority institutions are also left out of this Bill.