THERE is a multi-pronged threat being mounted against SC/ST/OBC reservations in education and employment.

The Supreme Court has recently upheld an Allahabad High Court verdict mandating the department rather than the college/university to be the base unit for calculating the number of teaching posts to be reserved for SC/ST/OBC candidates. This system (known as the 13-point roster system rather than the 200-point roster system) is guaranteed to undermine reservations in faculty positions in higher education institutions.

The 200-point roster which takes the entire college/University as a base unit means that a deficit in reservations in one department is compensated by other departments. The 13-point roster means that at least one appointment from each reserved category will be made only when a minimum of 14 appointments are made in a department. This means that the actually realised percentage of reserved SC/ST/OBC faculty posts advertised is far short of the constitutionally mandated 49.5%. In fact, in small departments with less than 14 faculty positions, not a single teacher from a reserved category may ever be appointed!

As it is, there is huge backlog in filling reserved faculty posts. The result is that higher education becomes a hostile space for students from deprived and oppressed backgrounds.

Ever since the Allahabad HC verdict, teachers from all over India have demanded that the MHRD of the Modi government enact a law mandating the 200-point roster. The Modi government avoided doing so. With the Supreme Court verdict, it has now become all the more urgent for an ordinance to be passed pending a law to protect the 200-point roster.

As CPI(ML) has pointed out, the 10% quota introduced by the Modi government for general category EWS applicants also undermines the Constitution which recognises only social and educational backwardness as a basis for reservations.

CPI(ML) calls for all-India protests against this anti-reservation measure.

• Against all moves to undermine Constitution and kill SC/ST/OBC reservations, including the 13-point roster and the 10% EWS quota


• To Demand Law to Restore 200 Point Roster!

- Prabhat Kumar
for Central Committee
CPI(ML)