Calicut University accused of sabotaging quota norms again

‘Norms violated in appointment of assistant professors’

Calicut University authorities have been accused of sabotaging reservation norms for different communities and persons with disabilities in its recent appointment of assistant professors in various departments. P. Rasheed Ahammed, a Syndicate member aligned to the United Democratic Front, claimed in a letter to the Chancellor that the university made the appointments violating the rotation points or charts of reservation and related norms as stipulated in Rules 14 to 17 of the Kerala State and Subordinate Service Rules (KS and SSR). He claimed that the university had also defeated the spirit of the reservation for persons with disabilities as it violated an order issued by the State government on October 30, 2019, by treating horizontal reservations, the quota for people with disabilities under clause (1) of Article 16 of the Constitution, as vertical reservations, the quota for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Communities. Though the percentage of reservation for the backward classes should remain the same even after providing for horizontal reservations, the rule had been violated in the appointments, he alleged. Mr. Ahammed claimed that reservation had exceeded the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney case. Of the 63 vacancies, 33 are reserved for communities and persons with disabilities. This is because the quota for persons with disabilities is treated as vertical reservations, fixing exclusive reservation turns. Thus, seats in the open quota had gone down below 50%. All the roster points fixed by the KS and SSR for reserved communities had been changed. Odd number roster points are fixed for open and even numbers are for SC, ST, Muslim, Ezhava/Thiyya/Billava, etc. The apex court had said in the R.K. Sabharwal vs. State of Punjab case that deviation from the rotation points fixed by the law was impermissible, said Mr. Ahammed.