Two Dalit organisations have called for a protest against alleged irregularities in the appointment of assistant professors in the Keladi Shivappa Nayaka Agriculture and Horticulture University in Shivamogga. The protest, organised by the Federation of State Dalit Organisations and Federation of Dalit Students of State Agricultural Universities in Karnataka will take place in Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on November 4.
The University, which was established in 2012, had issued a notification for the recruitment of 85 assistant professors in 2015, following the rules of the Roster Order 1987 of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms of the state government.
In the initial notification, 41 out of the 85 seats were designated for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates based on a subject-wise roster of 11 points. However, the Federation of State Dalit Organisations and Federation of Dalit Students of State Agricultural Universities have alleged that “some individuals who were unable to tolerate this cancelled the appointment”.
“In 2019, the University notified the appointment of 109 new assistant professors by violating all roster rules. But this time, instead of rostering subject-wise (as a unit), they had considered the entire University as a unit and illogically arranged the departments and made a wrong roster, which is opposite to UGC rules and the Supreme Court. Out of 109 seats, 54 seats that were rightfully allotted for SC/ST candidates were systematically reduced to 21 seats,” the federations said in a statement.
On January 12, the court granted the University permission to make interim and temporary conditional appointments due to a shortage of staff. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Minister of Social Welfare HC Mahadevappa had also held a meeting to address the issue of Dalit and Backward class seats being reduced. The federation said that the government acknowledged the violation of roster rules and decided to withdraw the current interim and temporary conditional appointments, issuing a fresh notification in accordance with the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms' roster rules. An affidavit was submitted to the court on October 6, affirming this decision.
According to the federations, the director of the SC/ST unit of the University had raised concerns over these violations, but no action was taken. This prompted the candidates from the Dalit and Backward Classes to initiate a legal battle against the University, alleging that it had disregarded the law and the Constitution and violated the candidates' rights.
“In spite of all these developments the present Vice-Chancellor of the University Dr RC Jagdeesha is using conditionally appointed candidates illegally to influence politicians, increasing pressure on the Karnataka government through swamijis of some manuvadi mutts which is highly objectionable. Moreover, the fact that the Vice-Chancellor has spent in lakhs to appoint several expensive lawyers against the government and is trying to divert the case shows the depth of corruption in this particular appointment (sic),” they said.
The federations said that the move has left hundreds of Dalit and Backward Class candidates with PhD degrees losing out on opportunities for assistant professor positions. They have demanded the arrest and suspension of VC Jagdeesha, Registrar KC Shashidhar, and other members of the governing body under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. They argued that failure to address this issue promptly could set a troubling precedent and potentially influence other universities to disregard reservation policies, thereby depriving Dalit and Backward Class candidates of opportunities.