The University Grants Commission(UGC) recently notified the "University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026". Well, facing a lot of backlash from the upper castes. The Supreme Court stayed the regulations, and the matter is now sub judice.

Nevertheless, one should ask whether it was that bad? In this article, I'm going to decode the regulations and address the concerns raised by protesters, and also touch upon the shortcomings of the regulations.

How the misinformation erupted the protests in colleges across THE country and in different parts.

A large number of videos circulated on Instagram claiming that a 3rd yr girl student from SRCC was prosecuted under these regulations after a false case was lodged by a boy because she rejected his proposal. I made the video countering these allegations, which you can watch over here. Well, after 2-3 days, SRCC clarified that no such instance had occurred, but by then the damage was already done, and beyond that, much misinformation was shared regarding these regulations.

Concerns raised

The primary concern raised regarding these regulations was what would happen if a false case were registered. The people jumped to the conclusion that there is no mechanism for the defendant to protect themselves. Whereas the reality is that the regulations provide for an appeal: a defendant can file if unhappy with the Equity committee's report. Well, mind the word 'defendant', I'm using the word carefully as the cases under these regulations will be pretty much civil in nature and not of criminal nature, while it was portrayed as a criminal in nature. Which is absolutely wrong.

The regulations are not of punitive nature where you will be given corporal punishment, if proved guilty but the larger media and the protesters without even reading the regulations come to conclusion that these regulations are punitive and their sons and daughters will be jailed (unless a penal offence is made out) and students from the SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PWD and women's are just sitting there to prosecute their sons and daughters in a malicious cases. Like seriously? For a moment, let's say yes, they will. Isn't it wise to ask why? You must be doing some notorious acts there, unless no one has the time or energy to lodge false complaints.

Well, no doubt that there will be a few people who will misuse it, but does that mean we should stop making laws and regulations to protect the people and ensure Equity and address caste discrimination going around? No, right? Every law can be misused at some point or the other; that doesn't mean we should stop making laws. True, we should have a mechanism to address false cases, and that's an undeniable shortcoming of this regulation.

The other concern is that only SC, ST and OBCs can complain. This is a white lie that has been fed to people. Above, I mentioned categories of people, which include EWS and women, so who are they? Doesn't this include people from the general category? Likewise, what if I say that when the government brought EWS reservation, they didn't include SC, ST and OBCs, aren't people from these categories economically weaker and should have been included? I hope you have got the answer.

And wouldn't the person who experiences caste discrimination be the one who will file a complaint? Otherwise, won't this mean men are filing complaints of harassment against women? Well, can't deny that a victim can be both. Still, in the present case, I can't understand how the upper caste faces discrimination based on their caste, being on the topmost level of the pyramid hierarchy — Brahmin, kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra. I never heard of anyone in any class discussion going the other way around or mixing the hierarchy.

Caste discrimination is the real problem in some colleges and universities; luckily, my University is not one of them. But many universities do have this problem, and a grave problem to the extent that many students lost their lives due to caste discrimination and harassment. Recently, a girl in Jammu and Kashmir succumbed to death due to extreme ragging and caste discrimination, while the media only called it ragging. And there are many more similar examples.

The objective of these regulations is to eradicate discrimination and promote Equity. Still, people can go to any extent to defame these regulations just because they talk about promoting equity and addressing caste discrimination.

No doubt the regulations have many shortcomings, like the procedure is not mentioned in detail, drafting is very poor, and it could have been more elaborate and detailed and what kind of actions can be taken and how it will deal with, in the cases where the complaint is proved to be made with malicious intent. And this is why drafting needs to be done with utmost care, keeping in mind all the possible situations and the consequences that can follow. When it comes to drafting and deliberation, this government falls miserably, and this definitely warrants criticism, but unfortunately, the government doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes. I doubt whether they are using ChatGPT for drafting 😶‍🌫️

Had people had a habit of reading and verifying, this type of propagandist campaign would have failed miserably. People didn't read and understand the regulations and were influenced by the videos, and directly jumped to conclusions. And those who have read it, misinterpreted it without reading the statute as a whole; always, a law is to be read as a whole, keeping in mind the preamble of the act or regulation. But anyway, people believe whatever they hear or read in the headlines. While negating the main content. Even if people become a little cautious about what they consume and just apply basic logic and critical thinking, they can uncover the hidden agenda, as in the case of a video of a false case involving a boy, in which they equated UGC regulations with SC/ST, act which is a penal law and has nothing to do with regulations.

So, before you forward anything that is controversial or could have adverse consequences, pause and verify. On this note, I take a leave. If you've made it this far and are still with me, and you like the content, please make sure you hit the like button, comment down your thoughts, feedback or anything.

Thank you so much for reading