Manju Mohan, a professor, confirmed that there is a scarcity of teaching faculty at the IIT. On being asked if granting quotas would lower teaching standards, she said: “Its anybody’s guess that there will be a difference in the standard but lets also see the entire thing from another perspective. There can’t be just one view on anything.”

Narendra Kumar Singh, general secretary of the SC/ST Employees Welfare Association, said there has always been a dearth of SC/ST/OBC faculty members at the IIT. With positions open for reserved category candidates, he sees this as an opportunity for more faculty members to join the institute. “The ratio between general category teachers and reserved category teachers in IIT-Delhi is very low. Normally, reserved category candidates are not taken,” he told Newsline. A senior professor said on condition of anonymity that though there is no segregation between teachers at present, “things could get aggravated in the future”. Most other teachers, however, remained silent on the issue.