New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it is reconsidering the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2026 regulations on promoting equity in higher educational institutions, which the court had kept in abeyance in January after finding them “vague” and capable of “misuse”.
The submission was made before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant , which was hearing a batch of petitions challenging and supporting the regulations. The court directed the Centre and UGC to file a composite affidavit addressing the concerns raised in the petitions. Till this exercise is complete, the court may defer hearing on these petitions. The bench granted four weeks for the affidavit to be filed and two weeks thereafter for the petitioners to respond. It had also questioned why ragging was excluded from the scope of the regulations despite being a common form of harassment in educational institutions.
“The 2026 Regulations are being reconsidered. On January 29, the top court had stayed the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, soon after they were notified on January 13.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the government was taking a relook at the regulations. It posted the matter for hearing after six weeks and said, “Since the regulations are under consideration before this court, it will be appropriate that a decision is taken by the Centre before the next date of hearing. The court had described the framework as “prima facie vague” and capable of “misuse”, and had flagged concerns over its potentially sweeping consequences. The Supreme Court had earlier questioned the need for a separate definition of “caste-based discrimination” under Regulation 3(1)(c) when another provision already provides a broad definition of “discrimination”.
