Stalin Welcomes UGC Regulations Before SC Stays Them
Hours after Stalin put out the message on his X page on Thursday, the Supreme Court kept in abeyance the implementation of the regulations that was vehemently opposed by upper caste Hindu groups and said the UGC’s regulations of 2012 would continue to be in force.
Chennai: Welcoming the notification of the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, Chief Minister M K Stalin said if the Union BJP Government was serious about preventing student deaths, ending discrimination and reducing dropout rates among students from backward communities, the regulations must not only be strengthened but also revised to address their structural gaps and enforced with real accountability.
Hours after Stalin put out the message on his X page on Thursday, the Supreme Court kept in abeyance the implementation of the regulations that was vehemently opposed by upper caste Hindu groups and said the UGC’s regulations of 2012 would continue to be in force.
Earlier the Chief Minister said the notification of the regulations was a delayed step towards reforming a higher education system scarred by deep-rooted discrimination and institutional apathy. Since the BJP came to power at the Union level, there had been a visible rise in student suicides within Indian HEIs, particularly among SC and ST students, he said.
Apart from that, there had been repeated attacks and harassment targeting students from South India, Kashmir, and minority communities, making equity safeguards not a matter of choice but an unavoidable necessity, he said.
The stated goals of dismantling caste discrimination and the inclusion of OBCs within this framework deserved support, he said, comparing the present UGC regulations' rollback backlash to the situation that prevailed when reservations based on the Mandal Commission recommendation were implemented in 1990. The pushback was driven by the same regressive mindset, Stalin said and urged the Union Government to not allow such pressure to dilute these regulations or their core objectives.
He said cases like the suicide of Rohith Vemula, where VCs themselves faced allegations, made it difficult to see how Equity Committees chaired by institutional heads could function independently, especially when many higher education institutions were led by RSS supporters.