UGC Bill 2026 Protest Live Updates: Students Celebrate With Colours As SC Stays UGC Guidelines

Students of Kashi Vidyapeeth University and UP College celebrated on campus after the Supreme Court stayed the UGC Guidelines 2026 on Wednesday. Visuals from the universities showed students smearing each other with gulal after the stay order by the apex court.

Students at Lucknow University were seen celebrating after the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed UGC guidelines.

• The new guidelines need the colleges and the universities to make special committees and helplines to address complaints, especially from students belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) categories.
• The guidelines make it mandatory for all the colleges and universities to create an Equal Opportunity Centre (EOC) on their campuses.
• Under the new rules, the colleges and universities are also instructed to set up helplines and oversight teams to manage complaints and ensure effective support for SC, ST, and OBC students.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the implementation of the UGC Regulations 2026, keeping them in abeyance until further orders. The court also directed that the UGC Regulations of 2012 will continue to operate for the time being.

Reacting to the order, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, counsel for one of the petitioners, said, “Today, the Supreme Court heard our writ petition challenging the UGC Regulations which have been enacted recently. The Supreme Court has stayed the UGC Regulations and has kept them in abeyance. The Supreme Court has directed that UGC Regulations 2012 will be in operation till further orders. The matter has been posted for hearing on March 19.”

The case will now come up for detailed hearing on March 19, when the court is expected to further examine the validity of the new regulations.

The protesting students said the new UGC guidelines go against the idea of “educational equality” and leave out students from the general category. They called for changes to ensure that the rules provide fairness for all sections of society.

Holding placards, the students raised slogans such as “Equity for all, not for few,” “Education with justice builds a strong nation,” “Kaala kanoon vaapas lo,” and “Rajneeti Murdabaad.” The protesters also warned that they would step up their agitation if their demands were not taken into account.

In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the recent UGC equity regulations, calling them “vague”, and stressed that the unity of India must be reflected in all educational institutions.

The top court heard a petition challenging the recent UGC regulations, which have sparked nationwide controversy. The petitions against the UGC equity regulations have been filed by Mritunjay Tiwari, Adv Vineet Jindal and Rahul Dewan, who argued that the new rules promote discrimination against general classes. Read More