New Delhi: The Centre has for the third time asked a parliamentary watchdog to drop from its list of government assurances a promise to implement reservation in admissions to private higher-education institutions.

Each House of Parliament has a Committee on Government Assurances that keeps track of the Centre's promises in the House, and seeks explanations if implementation is delayed. The UPA government had several times promised quotas in private colleges.

After the NDA came to power, the HRD ministry in 2015 requested the committees in both Houses to drop the assurance, citing a pending case in the Supreme Court.

The RS panel complied on August 30, 2016, but the LS committee, headed by BJP member Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, rejected the request. It turned down a second request last month, prompting the ministry to repeat the plea a third time. If the assurance is dropped, the government would be free from the parliamentary obligation of explaining any delay in honouring it.

The development comes at a time critics of the Narendra Modi government have accused it of being anti-reservation and anti-Dalit.

BJP MP Udit Raj opposed the latest move. "How can an assurance be dropped citing a court case?" he asked.

Ganga Sahay Meena, who teaches Hindi at JNU, blamed both the Congress and the BJP for the delay in enforcing seat reservations in private colleges. "Both are against reservations in private institutions. The Congress sat over the proposal for years. Now the BJP doesn't want to enact a law, either," Meena said.

The assurances had been made to MPs, who had asked about the implementation of the 93rd constitutional amendment of 2005, which created the scope for admission quotas in private and aided higher-education institutions. The BJP had supported the amendment.

In 2006, the then UPA government enacted a law providing for seat quotas in centrally funded institutions. But it never moved the corresponding law for private institutions.

BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal supported the government's stand. "If the matter is sub judice, an assurance can be dropped," he said on Saturday.

In 2011, Allahabad High Court had held that seat reservations in private institutions would be unconstitutional. The Centre's appeal against the verdict is pending with the apex court.

Reservation expert P.S. Krishnan said the Supreme Court had in another case upheld the validity of the 93rd amendment, so there was no legal hurdle to enacting a law implementing seat reservations at private institutions.