New UGC draft rules redefine ‘discrimination’

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued draft regulations redefining “discrimination” and introducing “caste-based discrimination” on campuses.
• The new regulations define “caste-based discrimination” as discrimination against members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes based on caste or tribe.
• Discrimination is defined as any unfair, differential, or biased treatment against any stakeholder on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them.
• The new regulations broaden the scope of discrimination to “any stakeholder” within the institute.
• The UGC’s expert committee drafted the new regulations, which were submitted to the Supreme Court Bench hearing petitions filed by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi.
• The new regulations propose an “equity committee” under the equal opportunity centres to examine complaints of discrimination.
• The regulations introduce a section on “false complaints” and propose fines and disciplinary action for those making such complaints.
• The draft does not define what constitutes a “false complaint.”
• The new regulations do not specifically account for discrimination based on exam ranks or reservation status.