Amendments to reservation act for central institutions approved

Updated on: Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) are facing certain practical difficulties in implementing the provisions of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006.

These difficulties emanate from the fact that their statutes already provide for reservation of higher percentage than 15 percent of the seats for SCs or 7.5 percent of the seats for STs, owing to the composition of population served by it.

In some cases the CEIs, which were state universities earlier, have adopted the norms followed by the respective state governments which require them to reserve more than 7.5 per cent of seats for STs.

In order to address these problems, the government has now proposed to amend certain provisions of the Act.

These proposed amendments envisaged are as follows :

1. State seats (vis-a-vis, seats earmarked to be filled by amongst the eligible students of the state in which the CEI is situated), if any, in a CEI situated in the tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution shall be governed by the reservation policy of the concerned State Government in the matter of admissions of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) to that CEI.

2. If the seats reserved for SC or the ST or both taken together in a CEI exceed 50 percent of the annual permitted strength, that CEI shall be exempt from making any reservation for the other Backward Classes.

Further, if such a CEI is situated in the north-eastern States, including Sikkim but excluding the non-tribal areas of Assam, the percentage of seats reserved for the SC or the ST shall not be reduced from the level obtaining on the date immediately preceding the date of the commencement of the act.

In case of a CEI situated in other areas, the percentage of seats reserved for the SC or ST in that CEI shall stand reduced to 50 percent.

3. If the seats reserved for the SC or ST or both taken together in a CEI fall short of 50 percent of the annual permitted strength, the percentage of seats reserved for OBC shall be restricted to such shortfall.

4. The period for giving effect to the provisions of sections 3,4 and 5 of the act shall stand enhanced to six years from three years, as some of the CEIs are finding it difficult to adhere to the said time limit for creation of the requisite physical and academic infrastructure due to a variety of reasons beyond their control and have been requesting for the increase in the time limit.

5. The number of seats in a branch of study or faculty in a CEI shall be increased with reference to the number of seats in that branch of study or faculty 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 be less, mainly with a view to avoiding wastage of resources.

All the Central Educational Institutions ( other than those exempted under section 4 of the Act, ) are presently required to reserve 27 percent seats for the OBC (excluding "creamy layer") in addition to 15 percent seats for the SC and 7.5 percent seats for the ST.

This is to expand their capacity, over a maximum period of three years, from the academic session 2008-09.

The reasons that have led to the amendments include difficulties faced by some CEIs, particularly those situated in the north-eastern states inhabited predominantly by tribal population.

Also, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow has been reserving 50 percent seats for the SC and the ST in keeping with the objectives specified in their respective acts.

Amendments to reservation act for central institutions approved

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