Reservation Policy ST SC OBC Eligibility Criteria For Higher Education Under 7th Pay Commission
The University of Grants Commission (UGC) has said that those students who belong to the SC or ST or OBC category and have secured 50% – without rounding off, in the Master’s Degree from UGC recognized universities, are eligible for applying in the National Eligibility Test or NET.
The minimum eligibility for the Other Candidates (OC) is at 55%. The 5% relaxation is for the SC, ST and OBC candidates. These students who have secured the required marks can then apply for NET which is an examination for recruitment of teachers. It is an all India based exam which recruits candidates for the teaching in Universities, colleges, etc.
Why was this step taken?
The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) has informed recently, that there needs to be an increase in the number of SC, ST and OBCs in the Central Government posts. Therefore various concessions and relaxations are to be introduced in order to take more people from these categories.
How will this be done?
This will be done in different ways. For example, in case of SC or ST candidates in case of promotion, their consideration zone will be increased up to five times the number of candidates. This way most of the SC or ST Candidates will get an opportunity to get equally selected through this scheme. This is one of the ways which is being implemented right now.
Already there are schemes and reservations for the backward classes in every government job and educational purposes. This has also been extended to the higher educational sections right now so that more and more backward classes can be included in this scheme.
So even after increasing the zone of consideration up to 5 times, the right candidate cannot be selected, there will be even more relaxation to fill up the seats assigned for them. This has been a common practice in colleges and universities. There is certain number of seats reserved for the backward classes. So in this case, there will be relaxation in the marks, age limit and so on.
As per the original notification, the relaxation will be in the minimum standard qualifying marks, upper age limit (which is usually relaxed up to 5 years). However, the person appearing for NET should not be more than 50 years of age. This is for the SCs and the STs. There are separate rules for the OBC candidates.
The relaxation for the OBC candidates is somewhat different in the sense that they have an age limit relaxation of up to 3 years.
What are the other things that you must know?
- If the reserved candidates want to get de-reserved there is a ban on it. This is true for all SC, ST and OBC candidates while direct recruitment.
- Also, we know that there is a 50% reservation for the backward classes. But this is not applicable while filling up the posts for the backlog vacancies.
- It has been informed by DoPT that the backlog vacancies are being filled up by special recruitment for the backward classes. This includes all the three types of castes.
UGC instructions
Also, as per UGC it is instructed to all Universities and Institutions that:
- Noticed be held up for the display of reservation roster on the University’s official website. This means that the university must mention that they are following this regulation in their official website.
- They implement the reservation policy. Even the Universities which are receiving grant aid from the public fund are to follow this policy and implement it in their institution.
- Also, if there are any backlog vacancies in these posts, this means that if there are any seats that have remained unfulfilled, then they need to be filled up also.
| Sl. No. | SC/ST | OBC |
| 1 | Age relaxation up to 5 years | Age relaxation up to 3 years |
| 2 | 50% minimum | 50% minimum |
| 3 | 50 years maximum | 50 years maximum |
Other :