Candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) will not have to pay fees to apply for any recruitment examination or selection for any post if the University Grants Commission (UGC) has its way.

The UGC has prepared the draft guidelines on the implementation of reservation of 15 per cent for SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs, 27 per cent for Other Backward Classes (non-creamy layer) and 10 per cent for the Economically Weaker Sections among the general category in admissions and jobs.

The UGC had in 2006 issued guidelines on this issue to the higher educational institutions (HEIs), including central universities. In the meantime, new provisions have been added to the reservation policy. Parliament has passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act providing for the implementation of reservation by clubbing vacant posts of different departments. In 2019, a constitutional amendment was passed to provide reservations for the EWS.

The UGC has sought feedback till January 28 from the stakeholders on the new guidelines.

“The candidate belonging to SC/ST/PwBD (Persons with Benchmark Disability) will not be required to pay any fee for admission to any recruitment examination/selection/other mode,” said the guidelines.

At present, central universities follow different policies for levying application fees for jobs from SCs and STs. For example, the University of Allahabad last month published an advertisement for professor posts. It wanted the unreserved, OBC and EWS candidates to pay Rs 2,000 as fees while SCs and STs were required to pay Rs 1,000. The PwBDs are required to pay facilitation charges of Rs 100, a special charge only applied to this group.

An official of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) said the university had never charged any fee from SCs, STs and PwBDs for recruitment exams.

“The HEIs may consider reimbursement of to and fro second class single railway/bus fare for appearing in written examination and interview by the shortest route to SC/ST candidates only,” the draft guidelines said.

According to the existing policy, if an SC person converts to a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, he/she ceases to be an SC and is no more entitled to reservation. But later, if he/she re-converts back to Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, the candidate will be deemed to have reverted to the original SC if the members of that particular caste accept him/her as one among them.

Ashok Bharti, chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit Organisations, which works for the rights and welfare of marginalised sections, said such a provision for re-converts had the potential to be misused.