The Union government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it is contemplating setting up a committee to reconsider the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2026 equity regulations, which the court stayed in January over concerns that their vague provisions could be misused and have “dangerous impacts” on society.
The petitioners contend that the definition excludes students from the general category who may face discrimination and that the regulations do not provide an adequate mechanism to address false complaints. The development comes amid ongoing legal and public debate over the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, which were notified on January 13 and stayed by the Supreme Court on January 29, after challenges to their provisions. It directed that the UGC’s 2012 anti-discrimination regulations would continue to operate in the interim to ensure that students facing discrimination were not left without a remedy. The regulations trace their origins to a 2019 petition before the Supreme Court seeking stronger safeguards against caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions. The plea was filed by the parents of Rohith Vemula, a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad who died in January 2016, and Payal Tadvi, a medical student who died in May 2019 after allegedly facing caste-based discrimination in her college. The petitioners pointed out that although the UGC framed equity regulations in 2012, their implementation remained inadequate, prompting the court to seek a stronger institutional mechanism to address discrimination on campus.
Mehta informed the court that the government was contemplating constituting a committee to revisit the regulations and was examining the issue to ensure that “no section feels dissatisfied or apprehensive”. At the time, the top court expressed concern that the framework, in its existing form, was vague and capable of being exploited by mischievous elements, and warned that it could divide society and have “dangerous impacts”. The petitions before the Supreme Court have primarily challenged Regulation 3(c), which defines “caste-based discrimination” as discrimination “only on the basis of caste or tribe” against members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
