May form panel to review UGC equity rules: Centre to Supreme Court

Centre tells Supreme Court it is considering a committee to review UGC's 2026 equity regulations amid concerns over grievance redressal rights for general-category students

The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it is considering setting up a committee to examine the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2026 regulations on preventing caste discrimination in higher educational institutions, following objections to their provisions.

 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, informed a Bench of Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the government was looking into the concerns to ensure that no group of students felt excluded or apprehensive.

 

The Bench also emphasised that the regulations should safeguard the interests of all students and not leave any section feeling disadvantaged. It suggested that the government reconsider the framework.

 

 

“Why don’t you revisit the UGC Regulations?” the court asked.

 

Mehta said the government wanted to ensure that the interests of every student were protected and that the concerns of the younger generation were addressed. He added that the Centre was contemplating the formation of a committee to examine the matter.

 

The court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, notified on January 13. The regulations apply to higher educational institutions across the country.

 

The challenge primarily concerns the exclusion of students belonging to the general category from the grievance redressal mechanism under the rules. The petitioners have argued that limiting access to institutional protection on the basis of caste identity amounts to discrimination by the state.

 

They have sought directions to prevent the implementation of the regulations in their present form, contending that the framework denies students outside the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories an equal opportunity to raise complaints of discrimination.

 

The regulations require higher educational institutions to establish Equal Opportunity Centres and Equity Committees to implement measures for disadvantaged groups and investigate complaints of discrimination.

 

The provisions have also triggered protests, with critics arguing that the framework is one-sided and could be misused against students belonging to non-reserved categories.

 

The Supreme Court had earlier put the implementation of the regulations on hold in January while considering the challenges.

 

After the Centre informed the Bench that it was examining the objections and considering a committee, the court adjourned the matter.