Need to enforce reservation rules in higher education: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday demanded that any regulator set up for higher education must be mandated to oversee the implementation of Article 15(5) of the Constitution.

The provision allows the government to enforce reservations for students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in private higher education institutions.

The party raised the issue in the context of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which seeks to establish a single regulator for higher education in the country.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15, 2025, and was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee the following day.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said Article



15(5) was inserted through the 93rd Constitutional Amendment by the Manmohan Singh government. He noted that the amendment came into effect exactly 20 years ago.

"Any such regulator should be mandated to oversee the implementation of Article 15(5) of the Constitution that came into effect exactly twenty years ago today. Article 15(5) was inserted by Dr Manmohan Singh's Government through the 93rd Amendment," Ramesh said in a post on X.

He described the amendment as a historic step that enabled the introduction of 27 per cent reservation for OBC students in centrally-funded higher education institutions.

These include the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, central universities and National Institutes of Technology.