Lucknow University Students Hail SC Stay on "Divisive" UGC Rules

Soon after the decision, students raised slogans in the University Campus, "Chhatr ekta zindabad (Hail Students Unity)".

Speaking to ANI, a student, Shakti Dubey termed the top court's decision as "Victory for students".

"Keeping the interests of students in mind, and considering the protests that took place across the country in which Lucknow University played an important role, the Supreme Court delivered this verdict. This is a victory for the students. It should be reviewed, discussed, and changes should be made to it. I thank the Supreme Court," he said.

Another student, Jatin Shukla, termed the UGC's new guidelines as "completely divisive", thanking the Court for its decision.

"This is a very serious issue. At Lucknow University, we were continuously protesting over this. On January 27, we organised a very large protest here and submitted a memorandum to the UGC Chairman. The Chief Justice of India has said that today there is a need to move forward by taking everyone together. We have won for now," he said.

"We did not have any major objection to the 2012 rules. The guidelines that were recently issued were completely divisive," he added.

Astha Pandey said that the Court's decision has had a very "positive impact" on students.

"This Supreme Court decision has had a very positive impact on us students. Those who wanted to create division among us, the Court, by putting a stay on it, has done very good work in our interest. We thank the Supreme Court," she said.

The new UGC regulations, notified on January 23, were challenged by various petitioners as being arbitrary, exclusionary, discriminatory and in violation of the Constitution as well as the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.

The Top Court said that, for now, the 2012 UGC regulations will continue to apply.

The Court opined that there is complete vagueness in Regulation 3 (C) (which defines caste-based discrimination), and it can be misused. "The language needs to be re-modified," the Court said.

The new regulations, introduced to curb caste-based discrimination in colleges and universities, require institutions to establish special committees and helplines to address complaints, especially from students belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) categories.

The new rules notified by the UGC on January 13, which update its 2012 regulations on the same subject, have sparked widespread criticism from general category students, who argue that the framework could lead to discrimination against them.

- ANI