Amid criticism of UGC’s draft guidelines on filling of reserved posts in higher education institutes, Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Sunday said that no posts in the varsity have been “de-reserved”.

The new draft guidelines by the University Grants Commission that were in the public domain for feedback from stakeholders till January 28 suggest that a vacancy reserved for SC, ST or OBC candidates can be declared unreserved if enough candidates from these categories are not available.

The draft guidelines have received criticism from several quarters, though the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Sunday clarified that no reserved posts can be de-reserved.

Issuing a clarification, Pandit, in a statement on X, said “As JNU VC I want to reiterate to all stakeholders that no posts in JNU have been de-reserved. We have got very good candidates under the reserved category.”

The statement mentioned that JNU follows the reservation policy as stipulated by the Centre and has an existing office memorandum which states that no de-reservation is allowed for any category of vacancies for SC, ST or OBC.

“The interchangeability of these categories are also not allowed,” the statement added, citing that even the Supreme Court has expressed the same sentiment against the interchangeability of vacancies reserved for these categories. The Congress alleged there is a “conspiracy” to end reservations given to SCs, STs and OBCs in posts in higher education institutions.

The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) has announced a protest against UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar on the issue on Monday.

The JNUSU alleged that the new draft guidelines were “exclusionary” and an act of “scuttling of reservation in higher education institutes”.

The SFI Delhi State Committee has also called for a protest at the UGC headquarters on Monday.

The draft ‘Guidelines for Implementation of the Reservation Policy of the Government of India in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)’ were released in December last year.