The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has constituted a five-member committee to look into allegations of discrepancies in allocation of seats for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in PhD programmes. The Students' Federation of India (SFI) had alleged discrepancies in how JNU implemented reservation norms for PhD admissions in 2026-27. SFI demanded immediate rectification and claimed that the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commissions for Scheduled Tribes take cognisance of its complaint.
At the time, several leaders addressed a press conference in New Delhi, including former Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat, former West Bengal minister Deblina Hembram and JNUSU vice-president Gopika Babu, alleging that the university's admission prospectus did not provide the prescribed share of seats for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and persons with benchmark disabilities.
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Subsequently, a notification dated October 26 was sent wherein a committee was constituted by the vice-chancellor to examine the representations regarding Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats in PhD programmes.
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The National Commission for Scheduled Castes took cognisance of the matter following the complaint filed by JNUSU vice-president Gopika Babu.
The panel is headed by Vivek Kumar, dean of the School of Social Sciences, and includes the university's ST liaison officer, chief adviser of the Equal Opportunity Office, deputy registrar (legal) and assistant registrar of the SC/ST/OBC Cell as members.
The committee has been authorised to co-opt additional members, if required. The formation of the committee follows the allegations levelled during admissions for 2026-27 academic session by student organisations.
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However, JNUSU has demanded student representation in the committee. According to SFI, of the 711 PhD seats, only 38 were allocated to ST candidates against the 7.5 per cent reservation requirement, resulting in an alleged shortfall of 15 seats.
The organisation has flagged discrepancies in the allocation of seats under the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) categories.
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