India's private varsities escape reservation law on the books for 20 years: Diaspora coalition

By A Representative 

A coalition of more than twenty civil society organizations, alumni associations, academic networks, and diaspora groups spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Bahrain, Brunei, and India issued a joint public statement this week urging the Government of India and Parliament to enact comprehensive legislation implementing Article 15(5) of the Constitution — a provision that has remained without enabling law for nearly two decades.

The statement, signed by organizations including the IIT Bombay SC/ST Alumni Association, the Ambedkar Association of North America, the Ambedkar International Mission chapters across three countries, and several Bahujan cultural and religious organizations, frames the issue as one of urgent constitutional accountability rather than partisan politics.

"India's Constitution envisions substantive equality," the statement reads. "It does not merely prohibit discrimination; it empowers the State to actively correct structural disadvantage." Article 15(5), inserted through the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 2005, explicitly authorizes the State to extend reservation policies to private unaided educational institutions — a step Parliament took in recognition of the rapid privatization then reshaping Indian higher education.

Yet no comprehensive enabling legislation has ever been enacted to operationalize that mandate in private institutions. The signatories warn that this gap has grown increasingly consequential. More than sixty-five percent of colleges and hundreds of universities in India are now privately managed, and many elite private institutions play decisive roles in shaping corporate leadership pipelines, public policy networks, and global academic partnerships — without carrying equivalent constitutional obligations to those borne by public institutions.

"This structural divergence risks creating a two-tier system," the statement warns, "public institutions bearing the primary responsibility of social inclusion, while private institutions increasingly shape elite pathways without equivalent constitutional obligations."

The groups cite the 370th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, released in August 2025 under the chairmanship of Shri Digvijaya Singh, as documenting under-representation of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class students in several leading private universities and calling for legislative action. The committee's findings, the organizations argue, make inaction no longer defensible.

A second, more time-sensitive concern animates the statement: the fate of the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026. Issued by the University Grants Commission in January of this year, those regulations created Equity Cells within institutions, established grievance redressal mechanisms, and imposed accountability requirements aimed at ensuring dignity and safety on campuses. The coalition describes them as meaningful, if partial, progress.

The problem, the groups explain, is structural. The UGC Equity Regulations derive their legal authority from the UGC Act of 1956 — a statute currently proposed for repeal under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill. If Parliament enacts the VBSA without explicitly incorporating the substance of the equity regulations into the new framework, those protections would lapse automatically. The coalition is calling on lawmakers to prevent that outcome.

"At a time when India is seeking to position itself as a global knowledge leader, equity cannot be treated as a peripheral administrative issue," the statement argues. "The legitimacy of institutions — both nationally and internationally — depends on their social inclusiveness."

The statement advances three core principles it asks policymakers to honor: that privatization cannot serve as a shield against constitutional responsibility; that representation and institutional accountability must advance together; and that equity safeguards must enjoy statutory durability rather than remaining vulnerable to regulatory transitions.

In practical terms, the coalition is requesting two legislative actions. The first is enactment of comprehensive enabling legislation under Article 15(5), implementing reservation in private higher educational institutions while respecting the exemption for minority institutions guaranteed under Article 30. The second is explicit incorporation of the UGC Equity Regulations' substantive provisions into the proposed VBSA legislation — or, failing that, any alternative mechanism ensuring statutory continuity during and after the regulatory transition.

The signatories are drawn from a notably wide cross-section of Ambedkarite, Buddhist, and Bahujan civil society. They include the Ambedkar King Study Circle based in the United States, the Ambedkarite International Mission Society of Canada, the Dr. Ambedkar Buddhist Organisation of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, the Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha of New York, the Begumpura Cultural Society of New York, and the International Bahujan Organization, among others. Domestic Indian signatories include the Samata Sainik Dal, the People Education Welfare Society, and Republican Party of India (Bheem Rao Ambedkar) representative Professor Dr. Gali Vinod Kumar of Telangana.

Notably, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a major public sector undertaking, is also listed among the signatories, suggesting the statement has drawn support across both civil society and established institutional actors.

The groups close with a pointed reminder that the constitutional architecture is already in place. "The Constitution has already provided the framework," they write. "What remains is implementation." They describe their intervention as a contribution in a spirit of constructive engagement, directed at translating constitutional commitments into durable policy.

The joint statement was issued publicly and accompanied by references to the Parliamentary Standing Committee report, the full text of the VBSA Bill, the UGC Equity Regulations, and related academic and policy commentary.