New Delhi, January 29: Amid nationwide uproar, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026.
The new UGC regulations, notified on January 23, were challenged by several petitioners who termed them arbitrary, exclusionary, discriminatory, and violative of the Constitution and the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.
The top court said that, for the time being, the 2012 UGC regulations would continue to remain in force. The court observed that Regulation 3(c), which defines caste-based discrimination, suffers from complete vagueness and could be misused. “The language needs to be re-modified,” the court noted.
The new regulations, aimed at curbing caste-based discrimination in colleges and universities, mandate the formation of special committees and helplines to address complaints, particularly from students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
However, the updated rules—an expansion of the 2012 framework—have triggered widespread criticism, especially from general category students, who argue that the regulations could result in discrimination against them.
On Wednesday, students, largely from the general category, staged protests at Delhi University’s North Campus demanding the immediate withdrawal of the newly notified UGC equity rules. The protesters alleged that the regulations promote discrimination rather than equality, pointing out the absence of mandatory representation for general category students.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, however, sought to allay concerns, assuring that the regulations would not be misused and would not lead to discrimination. “I assure everyone there will be no discrimination and no one can misuse the law,” Pradhan told reporters.
Protests were also reported from Lucknow, where students demonstrated outside Lucknow University against the UGC policies.
Earlier, Shyam Sundar Tripathi, Vice President of the BJP Kisan Morcha from the Salon constituency in Rae Bareli, resigned from his post, expressing dissatisfaction with the new UGC policies. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tripathi described the regulations as divisive and said he could not support what he termed an “unethical bill,” stating that doing so would be against his self-respect and ideology. (Agencies)
