The Students' Federation of India, the student wing of the CPM, has written to the Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', seeking the study report by a committee that was employed to look into the unfilled reserved category seats in the IITs. The committee under the chairmanship of the IIT Delhi Director Dr Ramgopal Rao, was constituted on April 23, 2020.

The data released in March by the Ministry of Education (then Ministry of Human Resource Development) had shown that PhD seats reserved for SC, ST and OBC candidates remained vacant in 14 of the 23 IITs in India. The remaining IITs had only partially filled their seats. Following this, the SFI had written multiple letters and had submitted a letter to Pokhriyal, seeking a solution.

"The committee was given a month's time for consideration and approval of the competent authority. We request you to inform if the committee has finalised its study and submitted its report," reads the email. The members of the SFI also say that another email sent by them, seeking the same in August did not yield a response. They also mention a circular that they received from the Department of Higher Education in August which said that no action was taken, based on the committee's report. "Poor representation of SCs, STs and OBCs among the faculties of IITs is also a reason for the denial of social justice to the students. Therefore we ask you to make the efforts to implement the CEI 2006 Act and CEI 2019," it reads.