What Supreme Court said while staying new regulations of UGC
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the new regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) until further orders. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi observed that the provisions of the regulations are unclear and could be misused.
The court made these observations while hearing petitions alleging that the new rules discriminate against students from the general category. The UGC had notified the new regulations on January 13, which have faced widespread protests across the country.
The Supreme Court has now issued notices to the central government and the UGC, seeking their responses. It has also directed them to revise the draft regulations. The court stated that the next hearing in the case will be held on March 19.
The UGC's new regulations are titled 'Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2026'. These regulations include several directives aimed at preventing caste-based discrimination against Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) students in colleges and universities.
Under the new rules, colleges and universities are mandated to establish special committees, helplines, and monitoring teams. These teams will address the grievances of SC, ST, and OBC students. The government states that these changes are intended to bring fairness and accountability to higher education institutions.
Under UGC's new regulations, the centre will be responsible for implementation of equity-related policies and programmes, to provide academic, financial guidance to disadvantaged groups and to coordinate with authorities and civil society.
However, students from upper castes allege that the UGC has adopted a non-inclusive definition of caste-based discrimination, which they claim will lead to chaos in colleges. Upper-caste students argue that the new rules unfairly portray them as "inherent perpetrators" of discrimination, thereby potentially encouraging discrimination against them.