The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea for urgent listing of petitions challenging the recently notified Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2026, on the ground that it has adopted a non-inclusionary definition of caste-based discrimination and excludes certain categories from institutional protection.

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of a lawyer seeking an urgent hearing of the plea.

“There is a possibility of discrimination against general class students,” the counsel appearing for one of the petitioners said.

“We know what’s happening. Make sure defects are cured. We will list it,” CJI Kant said during the morning mentioning time.

Two PILs have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the UGC regulations for defining caste-based bias strictly as discrimination against members of the SCs, STs and OBCs.

They said that by limiting the scope of “caste-based discrimination” only to SC, ST and OBC categories, the UGC had effectively denied institutional protection and grievance redress to individuals belonging to the “general” or non-reserved categories who may also face harassment or bias based on their caste identity.

Students have been protesting in different parts of the country seeking either
the withdrawal of the legislation or the inclusion of all other castes in the proposed mechanism.

The separate petitions filed by advocate Vineet Jindal and a PhD scholar from Banaras Hindu University, Mritunjay Tiwari, had sought directions to the Centre and the UGC
to desist from implementing the regulations as they violate Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (non-discrimination) and 21 (life and personal liberty) guaranteed by the Constitution.

The new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form “equity committees” to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity were notified on January 13. It mandated that these committees must include members from OBC, SC, ST and persons with disabilities categories, and women.

The new regulations replace the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, which were largely advisory in nature.