Supreme Court stays UGC's Promotion of Equity Regulations, cites constitutional challenge

The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold a recent UGC regulation following multiple petitions that alleged the Commission used a restrictive definition of caste-based discrimination and left out certain groups from institutional safeguards, PTI reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre and the UGC on the pleas challenging the regulation.

The new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form “equity committees” to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity were notified on January 13.

The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, mandated that these committees must include members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), persons with disabilities, and women.

The new regulations replace the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, which were largely advisory in nature.

The pleas assailed the regulation on the grounds that caste-based discrimination is defined strictly as discrimination against members of the SCs, STs and OBCs.

It said that by limiting the scope of "caste-based discrimination" only to SC, ST and OBC categories, the UGC has effectively denied institutional protection and grievance redressal to individuals belonging to the "general" or non-reserved categories who may also face harassment or bias based on their caste identity.

Student groups and organisations staged protests at multiple locations, demanding the immediate rollback of the regulations.

(With inputs from agencies)