Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 29 : Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday said that the Supreme Court's stay on the new University Grants Commission's equity regulations is "appropriate", given the current "social tensions" in the universities against these regulations.
In a post on X, Mayawati said the UGC should have taken all parties into confidence and ensured representation of the general category before implementing the regulations.
"The new rules implemented by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to prevent casteist incidents in the country's government and private universities have created an atmosphere of social tension. Keeping in view such current circumstances, the decision today by the Hon'ble Supreme Court to stay the UGC's new rules is appropriate," Mayawati said.
"Whereas in the country, an atmosphere of social tension etc. in this matter would not have arisen at all if the UGC had taken all parties into confidence before implementing the new rules and had also given appropriate representation to the upper-caste society in the investigation committee etc. under the principles of natural justice," she said.
https://x.com/Mayawati/status/2016816380809793966?s=20
Amid an uproar around the country over the alleged "discrimination" against the General Category in the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, the SC on Thursday stayed the regulations.
The Top Court said that, for now, the 2012 UGC regulations will continue to apply. The Court opined that there is complete vagueness in Regulation 3 (C) (which defines caste-based discrimination), and it can be misused. "The language needs to be re-modified," the Court said.
The new UGC regulations, notified on January 23, were challenged by various petitioners as arbitrary, exclusionary, discriminatory, and in violation of the Constitution and the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.
The new regulations, introduced to curb caste-based discrimination in colleges and universities, require institutions to establish special committees and helplines to address complaints from students in the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backwards Classes (OBC) categories.
Students, mostly from the general category, protested against regulations that promote discrimination on campuses rather than equality. The students noted that the regulation has no provision to address fraudulent complaints filed against General Category students.