UGC guidelines must have proper safeguards

The latest guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) have triggered a storm in the field of education, which has the potential to spill over to the political arena. The UGC’s newly notified Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2026, has provisions for stronger mechanisms to address caste-based discrimination in universities. On the face of it, they are seemingly innocuous regulations that could not become controversial. History of such government steps, however, has made some sections of society fearful and angry.

There have been a lot of cases of misuse of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. This piece of legislation too had lofty objectives: to check atrocities against SC and ST people. The law has become an instrument to “blackmail” innocent citizens and public servants, the Supreme Court observed in a judgment in 2018. It issued a raft of guidelines to protect public servants and private employees from arbitrary arrests under the Act. It also held that public servants could only be arrested with the written permission of their appointing authority. In the case of private employees, permission of the concerned senior Superintendent of Police is made mandatory.

Soon, there was uproar by politicians and activists, claiming to be the champions of SCs and STs, forcing the Narendra Modi government to bring in amendments to nullify the apex court’s judgment. The government argued that SCs and STs still face social stigma, poverty, and humiliation to which they have been subjected for centuries.

There was a grain of truth in the arguments proffered by the government and activists, but the problems of SCs and STs could not be solved by a law that is widely abused. Now, non-SC-ST people fear that the UGC regulation could become another instrument of bullying and coercion for them. They find the safeguards inadequate. Resistance has come from various walks of life. A district magistrate reportedly resigned, alleging the new rules were unfair to upper-caste students. Many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are angry. Shyam Sundar Tripathi, the district president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha in Salon (Rae Bareli), wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and resigned from his party post in protest.

An unnamed senior BJP leader was quoted by a media platform, saying, “The party’s tally got reduced to 240, and the conclusion that was drawn was that it was because the SC and ST communities did not support them. They have been coming up with one scheme after another for their welfare, and we have kept quiet. But now, it is about the future of our children, and the move is completely discriminatory. If this is not withdrawn, the party will have to face consequences.”

The government is cagey, with Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai avoiding a direct answer to the query about whether the regulations would be reviewed or paused. Parrying questions, however, will help neither the government nor the saffron party. If the objective of the UGC regulations is genuine about equity, then the answer lies not in blunt instruments but in carefully calibrated policy and effective implementation. Robust safeguards against misuse, clear definitions of discrimination, and transparent procedures are essential. Without them, the regulations may end up replicating the very injustices they seek to eliminate—this time under the banner of social justice.