Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is under fire for denying PhD admission to Shivam Sonkar, a Dalit student who secured the second position in the general category of the entrance exam, according to reports.

Despite his rank, BHU allegedly turned Sonkar away, leaving three of the seven seats in the Malviya Centre for Peace Research vacant.

After exhausting all official channels, Sonkar sat on a dharna outside the Vice Chancellor’s residence, demanding answers, The Week reported.

His protest has snowballed into a larger movement, drawing in students, politicians, and activists.

BHU has maintained that it followed procedural norms.

The administration claimed that after the counselling session, no changes can be made to reserved and unreserved seat allocations. The lack of suitable applicants left the reserved seats vacant.

BHU allegedly refused Sonkar admission, despite his second-place ranking in the general category, because they couldn’t accommodate him under the unreserved quota.

Earlier in January, the Supreme Court had said it will devise an effective mechanism to combat caste-based discrimination in educational institutions in the country.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to notify draft regulations to ensure no caste-based discrimination happened with students in the central, state, private and deemed universities.

The controversy turned political, with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party joining ranks to criticise the central university.

Ajay Rai, president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, visited the campus to back Sonkar.

“Though the university was established as a temple of education, it has now turned into a centre of discrimination and injustice. That this should happen in the constituency of the Prime Minister is shameful,” he said.

Samajwadi Party MLC Ashutosh Sinha has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling Sonkar’s case “an alarming example of creating obstacles in the path of higher education for students from the Scheduled Castes.”

Bhim Army chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Aazad has also urged Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister to intervene, saying the incident exposes the rot in BHU’s admission process.

The students’ union has warned of a larger agitation if Sonkar’s case is not resolved. They have already burned an effigy of the vice chancellor and raised slogans against the administration.

Sonkar, continues his dharna with pictures of BHU founder Madan Mohan Malviya, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, and Lord Ram by his side—a defiant reminder of the promises of equality and justice that remain unfulfilled.

Congress national spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed wrote on X, “In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, and in the constituency of PM, a Dalit student, Shivam Sonkar, has been denied his rightful PhD admission. Despite securing the second rank in the General category and with three available seats, he was refused admission solely because of his Dalit identity. Across the country, Dalit students’ rights are being systematically taken away & that is why my leader @RahulGandhi is fighting for their rights!”

An RTI filed by the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) in 2022 revealed that Indian Institute of Managements had been violating reservation norms in PhD admissions.

Over five years, only 5.4 per cent of PhD seats went to SC students, 1.8 per cent to ST students, and 16.7 per cent to OBC students—far below the mandated quotas.

The Wire reported that nearly 70 SC, 42 ST, and 76 OBC students were denied their rightful seats, which were filled by general category candidates instead.

In 2023, another RTI by APPSC revealed that IIT Bombay denied 80 seats to SC, ST, and OBC students while admitting 95 additional general category students. Twenty departments did not admit a single ST student, 11 refused all SC applicants, and five took in no OBC students, reported The Times of India.

BHU’s history of caste-based harassment has also come under the scanner.

In September, 2024, a Dalit research scholar lodged a complaint with the National SC/ST Commission, alleging that a senior professor of throwing a partially eaten samosa at him and hurling casteist slurs during a viva, according to The New India Express.

The student, Shivam Kumar, was appearing for his upgrade from Junior Research Fellow (JRF) to Senior Research Fellow (SRF) in the Anatomy department of the Ayurveda faculty when the incident took place.