The Higher Education Department has instructed Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) to submit a report on whether it has violated job reservation stipulations of Article 371(J).
On December 24, The New Indian Express had exposed how professors, assistant professors and associate professors were hired in violation of Constitutional reservations provided for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Rajneesh Goel, principal secretary to Higher Education, told Express, “We have asked the Vice-Chancellor to submit a report.”
Meanwhile, VTU has called a special Executive Council meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue. A source said, “The agenda shows three items, but the main item is the report that appeared in Express.”
An Executive Council member said, “We were all new and just had our first meeting. We did not go deep into the agenda presented. But if there is a violation, we will not allow it to go through.”
The university, which works from Belgaum, violated Article 371(J), which specifies reservation in education and jobs for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
During the recent Assembly session, the state government had assured that it would form a committee to implement Article 371(J) and freeze all recruitments in the meantime. Even the Karnataka Public Service Commission had stopped hiring after this.
Just two days after the assurance, on December 7, VTU placed the issue of recruiting 40-plus professors, associate professors and assistant professors before its Executive Council and issued appointment orders.
The rules say that VTU should have issued a fresh notification in place of the one it had issued in March 2013.
What is Article 371(J)?
Article 371(J) of the Indian Constitution makes special provisions, including quotas, for all-round development in six districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region: Gulbarga, Yadgir, Bellary, Bidar, Raichur and Koppal.