The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved amendments to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006 that will allow the institutions to implement the 27 per cent quota for the Other Backward Classes in six years instead of the stipulated three years and exempt some institutions from implementing it — where the maximum limit of reservation as fixed by the Supreme Court has been exceeded.
The amendments seek to provide a balance between the State-level policy and the national policy on reservation, particularly in the northeast, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told journalists after the Cabinet meeting.
Several Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) had expressed their inability to develop infrastructure and acquire faculty in three years for various reasons.
For equity, inclusiveness
The Amendment Bill, ensuring equity and inclusiveness and meeting regional aspirations, would be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament.
As per the proposed amendments, State seats (earmarked to be filled from among eligible students of the State in which the CEI is situated), if any, in a Central institution located in the tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution shall be governed by the reservation policy of the State concerned in the matter of admissions of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the OBCs.
If the seats reserved for the SC or the ST or both taken together in a CEI exceed 50 per cent of the annual permitted strength, that institution would be exempt from making any reservation for the OBCs. If the CEI is situated in the northeast, including Sikkim but excluding the non-tribal areas of Assam, the percentage of seats reserved for SC or ST candidates shall not be reduced from the level obtaining on the date immediately preceding the date of commencement of the Act; in the CEI in other areas, the percentage of seats reserved for the SC or the ST shall stand reduced to 50 per cent.
If the seats reserved for SC or ST candidates or both taken together in a CEI fall short of 50 per cent of the annual permitted strength, the percentage reserved for the OBCs shall be restricted to such shortfall.
The number of seats in a branch of study or faculty in a CEI shall be increased with reference to the number available for the academic session immediately preceding the date of the coming into force of this Act or with reference to the number of seats actually filled in that session, whichever is lower, mainly with a view to avoiding wastage of resources.
All the CEIs (other than those exempted under Section 4 of the Act, ) are at present required to reserve 27 per cent seats for the OBCs (excluding the creamy layer), in addition to 15 per cent for the SC and 7.5 per cent for the ST, as also to expand their capacity over a maximum of three years from the academic session 2008-09.
Difficulties in northeast
Difficulties experienced by some CEIs, particularly those in the northeastinhabited significantly, in some cases predominantly, by the tribal population, and the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, which has been reserving 50 per cent seats for the SC and the ST, have led to the amendments.
