Widespread protests and a court case are reported to have led the University of Calicut to put on hold its move to reduce the Scheduled Tribes’ (ST) quota for admission to PhD courses.
According to sources, the university Syndicate on Tuesday evening decided to continue the existing 7.5% reservation for students from the ST community. A notification issued earlier reducing it to 5% would be cancelled and the admission would be conducted in accordance with the 2020 notification. A sub-committee involving K.D. Bahuleyan, Shamsad Hussain, M. Manoharan, N.V. Abdurahman, and Ugin Morely had been told to study the issue. A final decision would depend on the panel’s report.
It was earlier reported that the State government had sought a clarification from the authorities on this. Dalit organisations too had come out against the move.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court is reported to have sought a clarification from the university on why the quota was reduced, based on petitions filed by three students from the community and Disha, a welfare group. The petitioners alleged that the quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) was increased this year from 7.5% to 10%. However, this was at the cost of the ST students whose quota got reduced from 7.5% to 5%. It was pointed out that this went against a notification by the Ministry of Human Resource Development that said that the reservation for EWS should not reduce the number and percentage of reservation for Scheduled Castes, STs, and Other Backward Classes.
Meanwhile, the university Syndicate also decided to seek permission from the government on admitting students to courses run by the School of Distance Education (SDE). The SDE had lost its recognition by the University Grants Commission some time ago. The Syndicate resolved to take steps to bring it back, sources said. The Syndicate also decided to develop information centres in various districts.
