LUCKNOW, Aug. 13 -- The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has no Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) faculty member at the professor level, according to a right to information (RTI) reply issued by the institute earlier this year. The response reveals that out of 957 sanctioned faculty posts, only 581 are occupied, while 376 positions are vacant, which is nearly 39.3% of the institute's sanctioned faculty strength. The reply, issued on February 6, provides a category-wise breakup of the institute's existing faculty. Among 257 professors, 254 belong to the unreserved (UR) category and three belong to the OBC category. There is not a single SC or ST professor at IIT-Kanpur, according to a document signed by Pradeep Prakash, assistant registrar and CPIO-2 on a letter head of the institute. Representation remains limited even at lower academic ranks. Among 128 associate professors, IIT Kanpur has 112 UR, eight SC, one ST and seven OBC faculty members. At the assistant professor level, the institute has 136 UR, 17 SC, four ST and 36 OBC faculty members out of 193 positions. Putting together all teaching ranks, IIT-Kanpur currently has 25 SC faculty members and five ST faculty members out of 581 serving faculty members. When asked to respond to this RTI reply that indicates the institute has no professors both in SC, ST category, IIT-K director Manindra Agrawal said: "This is not quite correct as there are many professors from reserved categories, but not officially recorded." He added, "The office gave the wrong reply. We will put out a statement tomorrow." Gowd Kiran Kumar, who holds a PhD from the University of Hyderabad and claims to be national president of the All India OBC Students' Association (AIOBCSA), said he filed an RTI application in January 2026, seeking details of reservation implementation at the IIT. He said IITs are supposed to put details of faculty in public domain. He has filed similar RTIs in many other IITs and IIMs in the country. According to the ministry of education, the Central Educational Institutions (reservation in teachers' cadre) Act, 2019, provides 15% reservation for SCs, 7.5% for STs, 27% for OBCs and 10% for EWS in faculty recruitment across central higher educational institutions. Kiran Kumar said the IITs have been conducting special recruitment drives since September 2022 to fill reserved vacancies. However, the data obtained through the RTI reveals gross violations and significant shortfalls in the implementation of constitutional reservation provisions in IIT faculty recruitment. He stated that the findings raise questions about the effectiveness of special recruitment drives and the commitment of IITs to ensuring equitable representation of SC, ST, OBC and EWS communities in higher education. In July, IIT-K director had told HT that faculty shortages were "not a new phenomenon" and persisted because IITs deliberately maintained rigorous recruitment standards for positions where a teacher can be hired for three to four decades for research and teaching. "...We are not getting enough candidates with high-quality PhDs," Agrawal said, adding that many of the best doctoral graduates now pursue careers abroad. He said teaching had not suffered because IIT Kanpur had adequate faculty to run its academic programmes, but shortages were affecting research in emerging fields. HT, in its report last month, highlighted that nearly two of every five faculty positions are vacant across all IITs. Official data showed a shortfall of teachers even as coveted colleges expand their campuses, augment student capacity and add a raft of new programmes. Of the 12,498 sanctioned faculty posts at India's 23 IITs, 4,804 spots, or 38.4%, were vacant as of January 30 this year, showed data compiled and analysed by HT. More than half the teaching spots were vacant at two IITs - Patna (54.6%) and Kharagpur (51.3%) - and more than a third of the spots were open at 12 others....