NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the stand of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on a plea seeking an early hearing of a petition challenging its decision to approve religion-based reservation in teaching and non-teaching posts while abolishing the quota under the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories.
The petition has sought directions to quash a resolution dated June 23, 2014, adopted by the Executive Council of JMI to this effect for having been passed without due process of law. A vacation bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh listed on June 14 the application which seeks to advance the date of the hearing fixed for July 7.
Senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj appeared for the petitioners and sought an urgent hearing as well as a stay on an April advertisement inviting applications for 241 non-teaching posts without any reservation for SC and ST candidates.
JMI standing counsel Pritish Sabharwal defended the existing framework and said being a minority institution, the university was not bound by the reservation policy for SC/ST. Petitioners Ram Niwas Singh and Sanjay Kumar Meena, who belong to the SC and ST community, respectively, stated in the petition that the exclusion of SC/ST category candidates from reservation was a wrong committed against the constitutional mandate.
The petition, filed through lawyer Ritu Bhardwaj, alleged JMI has arbitrarily abrogated the reservation under SC and ST categories in the appointment and promotion of non-teaching staff. The petition said JMI was a central university, and the resolution for abrogating the SC/ST reservation never received the assent of the Visitor i.e. the President of India, and has also not been published in the official gazette or laid before the two houses of Parliament.
“In pursuance of the order dated 22.02.2011 passed by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (which declared the Respondent University as a Minority University), the Executive Council vide its Resolution...”, the petition said.