In new draft rules, UGC redefines ‘discrimination’; now ‘caste-based discrimination’ only if against SCs/STs

New UGC draft regulations redefine discrimination, introduce Equity Committee, and propose punishments for false complaints on campuses.

The University Grants Commission issued new draft regulations that redefine “discrimination” and introduce specific nomenclature for “caste-based discrimination” on campuses across the country. While the regulations also propose an “Equity Committee” and punishments for false complaints, its definition of what counts as discrimination may give rise to concerns of clarity.

The UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2025 define “caste-based discrimination” as “discrimination on the basis of caste or tribe only against the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes”. It then defines “discrimination” as “any unfair, differential, or biased treatment or any such act” against “any stakeholder” on solely the grounds of “religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them”.  

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This is a deviation from the 2012 “Regulations on Promotion of Equity”, which define “discrimination” as “any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference” that impairs equality of treatment and then elaborates it. The grounds of discrimination it covered included caste, creed, language, religion, ethnicity, gender, and disabilities.  

And while the 2012 regulations define discrimination in terms of what students or groups of students might face inside an institute, the new draft regulations have broadened its scope to “any stakeholder” within the institute.   

The new regulations were drafted by an Expert Committee of the UGC and submitted before the Supreme Court Bench that is hearing petitions filed by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who had appealed for action against the “rampant” caste discrimination in universities that claimed their children’s lives. The UGC had formed this committee headed by Prof. Shailesh N. Zala, to revisit the 2012 regulations on directives of the top court.

The draft regulations were put out in the public domain this week on February 27 and the UGC has given 30 days for the public to send in their suggestions and objections. In the Supreme Court, the Union government had submitted on Friday that the new regulations would give the UGC “teeth and power” to de-recognise institutions that fail to comply with them.