National Commission for Scheduled Castes issues notice to MNLU Nagpur on SC candidate's recruitment complaint

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a notice to Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Nagpur, directing it to respond to a complaint alleging irregularities in a 2022-23 recruitment drive for non-teaching posts and non-compliance with the reservation roster for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

The notice, dated July 6 and signed by NCSC Director Dr G Sunil Kumar Babu, invokes the Commission's powers under Article 338 of the Constitution.

It does not itself record any finding on the allegations, but states that if MNLU fails to respond within 15 days, the Commission may exercise the powers of a civil court to summon the university's representatives.

The complaint was filed on June 5 by Nitesh Ramkrishna Gadkari, an SC candidate with close to 15 years of administrative experience at a private institute in Nagpur. Gadkari had applied for two contractual posts advertised by MNLU in December 2022 - Caretaker-cum-Office Assistant and Office Attendant - and was interviewed for both in December 2023, but was not selected for either.

According to his complaint, only two of the three advertised Caretaker-cum-Office Assistant posts were filled, with one still vacant. Both selected candidates, he states, had already been working at the university before the recruitment process began. MNLU had also advertised the Office Attendant post in the same notification, with three positions reserved for the SC category. Gadkari contends that reservation roster requirements for SC representation have not been properly followed across MNLU's recruitment drives since 2018-19.

Gadkari's decision to approach the NCSC follows a representation to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in July 2025, which the Supreme Court Secretariat forwarded to MNLU's Registrar in October 2025, asking the university to take necessary action. Subsequent RTI applications to MNLU, he says, confirmed only that the letter had been received, without disclosing any file notings or action-taken report.

In his complaint, Gadkari has asked the Commission to direct an independent inquiry into MNLU's recruitment processes since 2018-19, examine the reservation roster, selection records and merit lists for the posts he applied to, and reconsider his candidature for the vacant post or another suitable one in light of his qualifications and experience.