Context: The Congress said that any regulator for higher education must be mandated to oversee the implementation of Article 15(5) of the Constitution, which empowers the state to provide reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in private educational institutions.
- Referring to the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which seeks to establish a single regulator for higher education and was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15, 2025, before being referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, Congress general secretary (communications) said such a body must have a clear mandate to ensure the implementation of Article 15(5).
- “Any such regulator should be mandated to oversee the implementation of Article 15(5) of the Constitution, which came into effect exactly 20 years ago today,”.
Full implementation
- He urged the Centre to fully implement Article 15(5) on the 20th anniversary of its enactment through the 93rd Constitutional Amendment by the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
- Calling it a historic moment, He said the amendment enabled the introduction of a 27% reservation for OBC students in Centrally funded higher education institutions (HEIs), including the IITs, IIMs, Central Universities, and NITs. “Since then, lakhs of students from the OBC communities have availed of this reservation, bringing economic and social mobility to millions,” he said.
- Article 15(5) also permits the government to mandate reservation for SC, ST and OBC students in private higher education institutions, he said, noting that its validity was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust vs Union of India judgment on May 6, 2014.
Source: The Hindu