JNU: Meet today to debate quota for teaching posts

On the council’s agenda are the “results” of an opinion poll conducted among the JNU schools and centres to gauge the support.

‘Ayes’ and ‘nays’
In the poll,the faculty of the Centre for Historical Studies voted 13 to 10 against the proposed policy.

The Centre for Persian and Central Asian Studies (CP&CAS) “unanimously resolved” that not only should the SC/ST reservation for the said posts be scrapped,but the 27 per cent reservation proposed for the OBC category at the level of assistant professor should also be done away with.

The School of Arts and Aesthetics,the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies,the School of Computer and System Sciences,the Centre for Political Studies and the Centre for Study in Science Policy favoured the reservation.

Clarity required
The notion that the reservation is not legally binding seems to have affected the faculty’s view. A few schools and centres have sought more clarity on the matter.

Questions have also been raised on the roster system,which determines the number of reserved seats a centre gets against the total announced positions. Complaints have been raised over the fact that a skewed implementation of the roster system will lead to some centres or schools having more reserved positions than others.

“A concentration of reserved posts in one department and virtually no reservation in other departments would be unfair,” response from the School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA) said.

The SAA,the Centre for International Politics,Organization and Disarmament and the Centre for Study in Science Policy felt the university should make exceptions for specialised courses and those that have not been taught in India for long. “All effort needs to be made to train (the) most suitable MPhil and PhD students for future recruitment … so that candidates from the reserved quota may apply from a position of strength,” the SAA said.

In the council agenda,JNU has failed to place on record its own affidavit that could decide the debate once and for all. Filed in August 2008,it stated: “JNU is only implementing the policy or guidelines framed by the government or MHRD or UGC. As far as JNU is concerned … it has no alternative but to implement the direction of the Central government.”

The document was filed in response to a public interest litigation filed by the Citizens for Equality against the SC/ST reservation.