University teachers, students to march in Delhi for ordinance on reservation roster

Students and teachers will be marching from Mandi House to Parliament Street on Thursday to urge the government to bring an ordinance on reservation roster for teaching positions in higher education institutions (HEIs) during the upcoming Budget session.

Organised by the Joint Forum for Academic and Social Justice, the march will see the presence of Delhi University Teachers' Association, Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union.

According to DUTA, political parties have backed the march and expressed solidarity with the cause.

The Jamia Teachers' Association (JTA) also expressed solidarity with the cause and their members are also likely to join the march, organisers said.

In a statement, the JTA said even though the matter is irrelevant for Jamia being a minority institution, their Executive Committee rejected the new roster and said that the issue should be taken up at the national level.

The UGC had announced in March that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates following an order by the Allahabad High Court in April in 2017.

The Human Resource Development Ministry had filed a special leave petition against the court order which was rejected by the Supreme Court.