New regulations for universities, colleges against caste bias, insults are ready: UGC tells Supreme Court

The UGC was responding to a SC order in January in a petition filed six years ago by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who wanted Court to act against the “rampant” caste discrimination in universities which claimed their children’s lives. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday (February 27, 2025) informed the Supreme Court that new regulations to prevent caste discrimination in higher education institutions and universities across India have been drafted and will be placed in the public domain for soliciting comments.

The UGC was responding to a Supreme Court order in January in a petition filed six years ago by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, represented by advocates Prasanna S. and Disha Wadekar, who had appealed to the Supreme Court to act against the “rampant” caste discrimination in universities which claimed their children’s lives.

Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at Hyderabad Central University, and Payal Tadvi, a tribal student of TN Topiwala National Medical College, died by suicide in January 2016 and May 2019, respectively, after being subject to on-campus caste bias.

The UGC said its expert committee chaired by Shailesh N. Zala, former vice-chancellor of Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji Bhavnagar University in Gujarat, had revisited the existing UGC Regulations and schemes concerning the promotion of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and Persons with Disabilities in higher education institutions.

“The draft University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2025 are under the process of approval and would be placed in the public domain… Thereafter, it shall be notified as per procedure prescribed,” the UGC affidavit filed on Thursday (February 27, 2025) in the apex court said.

The Court had further, on January 3, directed the UGC to collate the total number of complaints of caste discrimination received under its 2012 Regulations across universities and higher educational institutions.

A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan had given the Commission six weeks to collect the data on how many Central, State, deemed and private universities and institutions of higher learning had set up Equal Opportunity Cells under the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations of 2012; the number of complaints received by them; and action taken on them.

The UGC affidavit responded that it had received 3522 responses from higher education institutions with information the Court had asked for. These included 45 Central universities, 293 State universities, 269 private universities, 103 deemed-to-be universities and 2812 colleges.

Based on the information received, the UGC said 3067 Equal Opportunity Cells and 3273 SC/ST Cells were set up.

“The number of total caste discrimination complaints received by these Cells so far is 1503,out of which 1426 complaints have been resolved,” the UGC informed the top court.

The UGC said 1314 complaints were received under the 2012 Regulations, out of which 1276 were resolved.

“The UGC is making all possible efforts to curb the menace of discrimination in higher education institutions and is also trying to effectively curb and control any such incidents by regular monitoring and setting up of helpline so as to ensure no complaint is left unattended or unresolved,” the Commission assured.

In January, Justice Bhuyan had said it was time the UGC showed “some sympathy” in this sensitive issue.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for the mothers, said the UGC must come clean on whether the 820-odd universities and other higher educational institutions were actually implementing the 2012 Regulations. She had highlighted that 115 deaths by suicide had occurred between 2004-2024, many of them belonged to the Dalit communities.

The Court had agreed to examine Ms. Jaising’s demand for exact caste-wise data on the number of deaths by suicide which had occurred in educational institutions of higher learning.