Once again, a response to a Right to Information (RTI) plea filed by the student group Ambedkar-Periyar-Phule Study Circle (APPSC) has shown that the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has been flouting reservation policies in recruitment and PhD admissions.

Data obtained by the APPSC indicates that in 2024, IIT Bombay recruited just two faculty members from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, despite receiving 44 applications. Additionally, out of 106 applicants from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, only three were hired, and from the 22 SC applicants, only one was selected for faculty positions.

The data also revealed that as many as eight departments in IIT Bombay have no faculty members from the reserved categories. Additionally, 25 departments lack faculty from the ST category, 12 departments have no SC faculty and another 12 departments are without OBC faculty.

This is not the first time that APPSC has questioned the reservation norms at premier technical institutes in India.

It’s worth noting that in April of this year, another RTI plea submitted by the group uncovered similar patterns in the recruitment data for 2023, revealing that the current faculty composition at IIT Bombay only includes six per cent of facilities from SC, ST and OBC categories.

However, IIT Bombay later dismissed these claims calling the data ‘misleading’.