The Government of Karnataka announced plans to implement the Rohith Vemula Act across higher education institutions, with Siddaramaiah stating it aims to curb caste discrimination against SC/ST students despite related Supreme Court of India-stayed UGC guidelines.
KARNATAKA: The Congress government in Karnataka has announced plans to roll out the Rohith Vemula (Protection of SC/STs from Caste Discrimination in Higher Educational Institutions) Act across all higher education institutions in the state, even though similar UGC guidelines at the national level are currently stayed by the Supreme Court. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced during the state budget that the Rohith Vemula Bill will be enacted to prevent caste-based atrocities against students in government, private, and deemed universities.
The proposed law is named after Rohith Vemula, the doctoral scholar whose suicide in 2016 at the University of Hyderabad sparked nationwide protests over alleged caste discrimination on campuses.
The cabinet discussed a draft of the bill on 26 February; it will be finalised after reviewing inputs from the Home department and then placed before the next cabinet for approval. Once enacted, the statute seeks to strengthen protections for students from marginalised communities and address perceived shortcomings in existing mechanisms.
Karnataka’s move reflects the government’s stated commitment to tackle caste discrimination in education, fulfilling a pledge in the Congress manifesto and responding to appeals by Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who last year urged Siddaramaiah to introduce such legislation.
Details such as penalties and enforcement mechanisms will be clarified when the bill is finalised. The government has stressed that the law will apply uniformly to all higher education institutions in the state, with the goal of ensuring that students can pursue education with dignity, free from caste-based exclusion or injustice.
This initiative comes despite the Supreme Court’s interim stay on similar provisions in the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations 2026, which were notified earlier this year to address alleged caste discrimination and promote equity nationally. The apex court put those regulations on hold on 29 January 2026, citing vagueness in key clauses and potential for misuse, and directed that the earlier 2012 UGC regulations remain in force until further orders.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi placed the regulations in abeyance, expressing prima facie concerns that certain provisions were vague and could be misused. The court noted that some aspects of the regulations appeared “too sweeping” and could have “very dangerous impacts,” including the risk of dividing students like separate caste-based hostels.
The stay followed multiple petitions challenging the 2026 regulations, particularly the definition of “caste-based discrimination” under Clause 3(c), which limited protection to members of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), without extending similar safeguards to general category students. The bench flagged this asymmetry as raising constitutional questions, suggesting it might unfairly discriminate against upper castes and lacked measures to penalise false complaints.
In view of the Supreme Court’s observations, it remains to be seen whether the Karnataka law will include safeguards to prevent misuse.
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