Overview
- Jairam Ramesh marked the 20th anniversary of Article 15(5) by urging that the proposed regulator be tasked with implementing reservation provisions in private higher-education institutions.
- Article 15(5), added by the 93rd Constitutional Amendment, allows the government to mandate reservations for SC, ST and OBC students in private colleges not run by minorities.
- The Supreme Court upheld the validity of Article 15(5) in the Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust judgment on May 6, 2014.
- Despite constitutional backing, Parliament has not enacted a law to operationalize these reservations in private institutions.
- An August 2025 Parliamentary Standing Committee report called representation of SC, ST and OBC students in private colleges abysmally low and recommended legislation, as the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill was introduced on December 15 and sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.