The Kerala High Court has directed aided colleges to ensure reservation for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) in the appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff.
The court also ordered that no further appointments shall be made till amendments are made to fulfil reservation in appointments.
The order was issued by Justice A.M. Shaffique on petitions filed by K.T. Rejikumar of Pariyaram and others seeking a directive to the colleges to implement the reservation rule.
The court directed the authorities to make the amendments within six months. All universities should make necessary amendments to their statute or frame statutes to ensure that appropriate reservation was made for the SC/ST candidates while appointing teaching as well as non-teaching staff in aided non-minority institutes. The appointments shall be made only after making provision for reservation, the court ordered.
The University Grants Commission has prescribed reservation in universities, deemed universities, colleges, and other grant-in-aid institutions and centres.
The petitioners contended that though there were 7,199 teachers in aided colleges, there were only 11 teachers belonging to the SC/ST communities. While the Scheduled Castes had 15 per cent reservation in educational institutions, it was 7.50 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes.
The University Grants Commission submitted that the State universities, including their affiliates and constituent colleges, should follow the reservation for the SCs/STs prescribed by the State government. The minority institutions contended that that the guidelines were not applicable to them.
